A group portrait of the boys in the Chemawa Indian School band, taken soon after the school relocated to Chemawa from Forest Grove in 1885. The students hold their instruments as if they were performing, probably as a posed demonstration for the camera. From left to right, they hold four trumpets (and/or bugles); three euphoniums or similar brass instruments; a tuba; a large drum with cymbal; and a snare drum. The student holding the large drum is probably James Stewart, Nez Perce. The four students on the left may be the same boys noted as being "buglers" on the school roster (not necessarily in this order): George Piute, Warm Springs; George Brown, Tlingit; Philip Jones, Tlingit; and George Blake, Tlingit. For another photograph taken on the same day, see image WCMss261_001_157.
A group portrait of the 1885 graduates of the Forest Grove Indian School. The school relocated from Forest Grove to Chemawa that year and was renamed soon afterwards. This image was probably made at Chemawa based on the white building in the background. It was probably taken at the end of the school year in June. The boys wear their military-style school dress uniforms; several have stripes, epaulets and medals that probably indicated their ranks within the school. The girls wear matching white dresses which the girls probably sewed in the school's sewing workshops. Two students have been identified: James Stewart, Nez Perce (middle row, fourth from right); and Jacob Helm, Paiute of Yakama (middle row, second from left). Emma Kahama may be the fourth student from the right in the top row. Students listed in school records as 1885 graduates, many of whom are probably in this portrait, include: John Alexis, Lummi; George Blake, Stikine Tlingit; David Fletcher and Jennie Fletcher, Snohomish; Jacob Helm, Paiute of Yakama; Etta Hollaquilla, Warm Springs; Thomas Itwis, Puyallup; Levi Jonas, Nez Perce; Emma Kahama, Puyallup; Peter Kalama, Nisqually and Hawaiian; Ella Lane, Puyallup; William Lewis, Tlingit; William Martin, Puyallup; George Meacham, Wasco; Lizzie Olney, Warm Springs; Emma Parker, Wasco and Warm Springs; Lillie Pitt and Sallie Pitt, Pit River and Warm Springs; Rosa Price, Nez Perce; Peter Sherwood, Squaxin Island; John Smith, Skokomish; James Stewart, Nez Perce; Susie Winyer, Nisqually.
A group portrait of mostly Tlingit boys from Alaska who were enrolled at the Forest Grove Indian School in 1881 or 2. The photograph was taken by an employee of the I.G. Davidson Studio of Portland, outdoors on the school campus. The Davidson studio took several other group portraits of students on the same day. Copies of the photographs were sold as albumen print cabinet cards to the public, with a portion of the proceeds going to the school coffers. This arrangement was made as an agreement between the studio and the school's first superintendent, Captain M.C. Wilkinson. The caption reads: "Davidson Photo. No. 37. Indian Training School, Forest Grove, Oregon. Group of Alaska Boys. Capt. M. C. WIlkinson, U.S.A., in charge."
The boys wear their everyday school clothes and caps from the school's military-style uniforms. Most of them have tucked small tokens into their button holes: oak leaves and wildflowers. Students in this image probably include those listed in the school roster as having come from Alaska by 1881: William Lear, George Brown, Frank Shattuck, Samuel Goldstein, Walter Burwell, Arthur Jackson, Harry Kadeshan, Charles Lott, Philip Jones, George Blake, and William Lewis. Of these, William Lear and Frank Shattuck appear to have actually been Samish and Coast Salish from northern Washington; the others were Tlingit of Chilkat, Sitka and Stikine. Based on another confirmed photograph, the second boy from the left in the bottom row is probably Walter Burwell. A swing can be seen hanging from the trees in the background, possibly identifying the location as the school's play area, which was just west of the campus.
A group portrait of the boys enrolled at Chemawa Indian School, very soon after the school relocated there from Forest Grove in 1885. The boys stand at attention, demonstrating a military drill for the camera. The student standing in front of the others may have been leading the drill. One student holds the United States flag aloft on the right. A woman stands in the doorway of the white building on the left. Trees, which had not yet been cleared from the campus, lie behind a fenced area in the background. The boys in this portrait were taken to the school from tribes across the Pacific Northwest as part of a government plan to force them to assimilate into white culture. For another photograph taken on the same day, see image WCMss261_001_176.
A group portrait of 62 Native American students from Pacific Northwest tribes who were enrolled at the Forest Grove Indian School. It was likely taken between May-June 1881, by which time a total of 64 students had enrolled.
This photograph was taken by an employee of the I.G. Davidson Studio of Portland. The tribes then present at the school included Puyallup, Warm Springs, Spokane, Chehalis, and Alaskan (primarily Tlingit). The caption reads: "Davidson, Indian Training School, Forest Grove, Oregon, Photo." The Davidson studio took numerous photographs of the school to sell to the public as cabinet cards. However this image, which is printed on different stock than the other Davidson cabinet cards and with a handwritten rather than printed caption, appears to have been made in smaller quantities, possibly for a smaller audience.
Several students have been identified based on other confirmed portraits. The two students in the top row wearing plaid are Nugen and Augustus Kautz, whose mother was a Nisqually woman named Tenas Puss and father was General August Valentine Kautz of the U.S. Army. The fifth student from the right in the third row from the top is David Brewer, Puyallup. The student standing furthest to the left in the third row from the top is Samuel "Spott" McCaw, Puyallup.
An illustration of scenes from the Forest Grove Indian School that was published in the magazine Harper's Weekly in 1882, based on photographs from 1881. The school, which functioned from 1880-1885, tried to assimilate Native children into Western culture, teaching them trades and basic academic skills while eradicating their native languages and cultural practices.
The images include: 'Housekeeping' (upper left): female students performing tasks they learned at the school including sewing, laundry, ironing, and making bread, with several younger students holding dolls; 'Carpenters at Work' (upper right): male students in front of the school's workshop performing tasks from carpentry class including sawing and cabinetmaking; 'A School Scene' (lower right): male and female students posed in an academic classroom scene outdoors with teaching equipment such as maps, books, charts, and an organ; 'Shoemaking' (lower left): male students in front of the school's workshop performing tasks from the shoemaking class, accompanied by teacher Samuel A. T. Walker; and 'New Recruits, Spokane Indians' (center): a group portrait of the Spokane students who arrived at the school in July 1881: Alice L. Williams, Florence Hayes, Suzette (or Susan) Secup, Julia Jopps, Louise Isaacs, Martha Lot, Eunice Madge James, James George, Ben Secup, Frank Rice, and Garfield Hayes.
The illustrations were based on a series of photographs that were taken in 1881. The photographer was from the I.G. Davidson studio of Portland. The four classroom scenes were posed outdoors at the Forest Grove Indian School, and are intended to show some of the skills that the students were learning there. The center group portrait was taken at the Davidson studio and was intended to be a 'before' picture of how the students looked when they arrived at the school; an 'after' photograph showing them seven months later was also taken, but not reproduced in this illustration. The photographs were probably originally produced in order to assist in fundraising activities for the school.
This double-page illustrated version of the photographs was drawn by Thure de Thulstrup to accompany an article in Harper's Weekly, which was an American magazine with a very large circulation. The article praised the school and described its accomplishments in assimilating Native children.
This image shows the building which had been used as a dormitory at the Forest Grove Indian School from 1880-1885 as it appeared in 1894, after the Indian School had moved away to Salem. By the time of this photograph in 1894, the building had been converted to housing for male students at Pacific University. As an historian of the university written a decade later recounted, 'One of the main buildings erected for the [Indian] school burned a short time before the removal [to Salem; this is referring to the Indian girls' dormitory, which burned down around 1885], and the other has been fitted up for a boys' dormitory and boarding house [for Pacific University students]. Here some of the young men have clubbed together, and thus boarded themselves for from a dollar and a quarter to a dollar and a half a week.' The historian cross-referenced this image from the Pacific University 1894 yearbook, 'The Heart of Oak,' where this image was first published. See: Eells, Myron, ed. 'A History of Tualatin Academy and Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon, 1848-1902.' Typescript. (1904) p. 83-84. Pacific University Archives.
A portrait of an unidentified Native American girl. She probably attended Chemawa Indian School and/or the Forest Grove Indian School; or she might be the daughter of alumni from the school, such as Katie and David Brewer. The photograph is a small, 43mm x 81mm image in carte-de-visite format. It is stamped on the verso of the photograph as having been taken by W. P. Johnson, and probably dates from between 1886-1888 (See: Robinson, Oregon Photographers, 1993, p. 394). This may be the same girl who is pictured in another portrait in the collection, PUApic_008361.
An image of the Indian Training School's original campus in Forest Grove. This photograph was likely taken in 1880 or early 1881. The view is looking west from what is now the intersection of C Street and 22nd Place in Forest Grove. The girls’ dormitory is on the right; the boys’ dormitory is on the left; and the school workshop is in the center. Plank sidewalks connect the buildings. In contrast to later photographs: the dormitories have not yet had dormers or porch roofs added; the foundations have no skirting; and the workshop does not yet have the addition that would later be added on the right side. None of the buildings pictured here have survived. The photograph is numbered 35 in a series of photographs by I.G. Davidson, a photography studio based in Portland. The series shows how the school taught the children to behave according to the norms of white society, including learning trades and wearing Western clothing. This scan is of a later black-and-white print based on a negative held by the Oregon Historical Society (negative no. 58774).
A posed photograph taken in 1881 of Native American boys in the Forest Grove Indian Training School performing blacksmithing (left) and carpentry skills (right). The names of the children are not identified. The white man is their blacksmithing instructor, William S. Hudson. The building in the background is the school’s workshop, which was on the main campus of the school in Forest Grove. The caption notes that this was number 33 in a series of photographs by I.G. Davidson, a photography studio based in Portland. The series shows how the school taught the children to behave according to the norms of white society, including the teaching of vocational skills such as this one. This photograph was reproduced alongside several other images of the school as an etching in a popular magazine, Harper's Weekly, in 1882. The Pacific University Archives' copy of this photo is a black-and-white reproduction of the original, which would have been a sepia-toned albumen print.
A posed photograph of Native American students sitting at desks outside of one of the dormitories at the Forest Grove Indian Training School. Various maps, drawings, Christian signs and objects such as a music organ, books, blocks, and a globe are arranged around the students, demonstrating the subjects that the students were being taught. The children are separated by gender and organized by age, with younger students at the front. The actual classroom spaces at the school were indoors. The caption notes that this was number 32 in a series of photographs by I.G. Davidson, a photography studio based in Portland. The back of the photograph reads: "Indian Training School, Forest Grove, Capt. M.C. Wilkinson USA, in charge ." I.G. Davidson photoThe series shows how the school taught the children to behave according to the norms of white society. The Pacific University Archives' copy of this photo is a black-and-white reproduction of the original, which would have been a sepia-toned albumen print.
A hand-tinted photograph depicting students at Chemawa School, standing under its entrance arch in Salem in 1905. A caption on the photograph reads: "Entrance to Indian Training School, Chemawa, near Salem, Oregon." The students shown in the image are mostly younger boys, all wearing the military-style school uniform. The Pacific University Archives' copy of this photograph is a reprint made in the late 20th century. The original photograph was issued as a postcard.
A hand-tinted photograph of the entrance arch to Chemawa Indian School in Salem, lettered 'Indian Training School.' It depicts Chemawa as it appeared in 1905. The Pacific University Archives' copy of this photograph is a reprint made in the late 20th century. The original photograph was likely issued as a postcard.
A posed photograph of Native American girls in the Forest Grove Indian Training School performing housekeeping skills. The twenty girls of various ages are in western dress and are showing the skills which the vocational classes offered to girls at the school: washing, ironing, making bread, sewing by hand and with sewing machines, and housekeeping. The photograph was posed outdoors with one of the school dormitories in the background. They did this in order to make use of natural light; the actual classrooms were indoors. The caption notes that this was number 43 in a series of photographs by I.G. Davidson, a photography studio based in Portland. The series shows how the school taught the children to behave according to the norms of white society, including the performance of vocational skills such as this one. This photograph was reproduced alongside several other images of the school as an etching in a popular magazine, Harper's Weekly, in 1882.
A posed photograph of Native American boys in the Forest Grove Indian Training School performing shoemaking skills. The names of the children are not identified. The white man is their instructor, Samuel A. T. Walker, who noted the occasion in his diary on June 6, 1881: 'I went out to the Indian School to work before noon and had my picture taken in front of the shop with my shoe maker boys.' The caption notes that this was number 41 in a series of photographs by I.G. Davidson, a photography studio based in Portland. The series shows how the school taught the children to behave according to the norms of white society, including the teaching of vocational skills such as this one. This photograph was reproduced alongside several other images of the school as an etching in a popular magazine, Harper's Weekly, in 1882.
A posed photograph of Native American boys in the Forest Grove Indian Training School performing carpentry skills. The caption notes that this was number 42 in a series of photographs by I.G. Davidson, a photography studio based in Portland. The series shows how the school taught the children to behave according to the norms of white society, including the teaching of vocational skills such as this one. This photograph was reproduced alongside several other images of the school as an etching in a popular magazine, Harper's Weekly, in 1882.
A group portrait of students and staff from Chemawa School, visiting the original site of the Indian Training School in Forest Grove, showing the remains of one of the school workshops in the background. At the time when this picture was taken, the school had been relocated to Salem and renamed Chemawa. In this photo are Edwin L. Chalcraft, second from right, and Alice P. Chalcraft, his daughter, seated in front with a white hat. Edwin Chalcraft was the superintendent of Chemawa School from 1894-1895 and 1904-1911. This photograph was probably taken around 1910, by which time both of the school's original dormitories had been destroyed, leaving only a few rickety outbuildings on the site of the former campus.
This image is a copy of an earlier version of the photograph. It is most likely based on an original lantern slide located in the Chalcraft-Pickering Photographs collection at the Washington State University Archives.
A group portrait of the second group of Spokane students taken to the Forest Grove Indian School from the band of Chief Lot. This photograph was taken at the I.G. Davidson Photography Studio in Portland, Oregon on July 8, 1881. At the time, the children were en route from their homes to the school. Their names as given on the school roster were: Alice L. Williams; Florence Hayes; Suzette (or Susan) Secup; Julia Jopps; Louise Isaacs; Martha Lot; Eunice Madge James; James George; Ben Secup; Frank Rice; and Garfield Hayes.
The Forest Grove Indian School Superintendent had this photograph made for fundraising and promotional purposes. It was intended to be a "before" picture, which he paired with a later "after" picture that was taken when the children had been at the school for seven months (see PUApic_008035). The intention behind the pair of photographs was to show how the school was assimilating Native children into white society, erasing their Native customs. Sadly, one girl in the first photograph, Chief Lot's daughter Martha Lot, died before the second photograph was made. Martha is believed to be the tallest girl in the back row.
The general public could buy copies of this photograph for 50 cents per print, with the school earning 10 cents on each sale. The caption, "New Recruits -- Spokane Indians," was supplied by the photography studio. The number "43" that appears on this photograph refers to the I.G. Davidson catalog, from which more photographs could be ordered. The image was reproduced alongside several other images of the school as an etching in a popular magazine, Harper's Weekly, in 1882 (see PUA_MS27_081).
An image of the Indian Training School's original campus in Forest Grove. It shows the students in their uniforms, a male teacher (probably the superintendent, Captain M.C. Wilkinson), and other teachers and staff in the foreground, with a dormitory (right), workshop (center) and another dormitory (left) in the background. The caption describes the image: 'One of the main buildings, erected entirely by Indian boys; dormer windows, rustic painting on all. Their work without aid.' It is numbered 36 in a series of photographs by I.G. Davidson, a photography studio based in Portland. The series shows how the school taught the children to behave according to the norms of white society, including learning trades and wearing Western clothing. It was probably taken in 1881 or 1882, based on other dated photographs within the series.
A portrait of an unidentified Native American girl. She probably attended Chemawa School and/or the Indian Training School at Forest Grove. The photograph is a small, 85mm x 185mm image in carte-de-visite format. Although the photographer is not identified on the photograph, it matches other carte-de-visite photographs in this collection by W. P. Johnson of Salem that are dated. It was probably taken between 1886-1888 (Robinson, Oregon Photographers, 1993, p. 394).
A portrait of an unidentified Native American boy. He probably attended Chemawa School and/or the Indian Training School at Forest Grove. He is wearing the military-style school uniform used at Chemawa. The photograph is a small, 85mm x 185mm image in carte-de-visite format. It is stamped and dated on the verso of the photograph as having been taken by W. P. Johnson of Salem in October, 1887.
A portrait of an unidentified Native American boy. He most likely attended the Forest Grove Indian Training School and/or the Chemawa School in the 1880s. Based on the location where this photograph was taken in Tacoma, he may have been a member of the Puyallup tribe.
A portrait of an unidentified Native American girl. She may be a daughter of alumni of the Forest Grove Indian School, or she may have been attending Chemawa Indian School in Salem. The photograph is a small, 85mm x 185mm image in carte-de-visite format. It is stamped on the verso of the photograph as having been taken by W. P. Johnson, and probably dates from between 1886-1888 (See: Robinson, Oregon Photographers, 1993, p. 394).
Portrait of an unidentified Native American woman. She is sitting in front of a painted studio backdrop of a piano, and is holding a magazine or newspaper. She was likely a former student at the Forest Grove Indian Training School. The choice of props may have been intended to symbolize her education in reading and music. The back of the photograph includes a handwritten note by the subject, describing herself as an 'ugly girl' who worked hard, did dress-making, and was a musician. The note may have been addressed to Minerva 'Minnie' J. Walker, whose husband Samuel was the shoemaking instructor at the school (see a similar inscription on the back of another photograph, PUApic_008315). The photograph is a tintype, a format that was uncommon by the late 1880s, but which was cheap and easy to send in the mail.
