MS 040 - Fort Belknap Reservation Photographs, 1898-1909 | McCracken Research Library

The Fort Belknap Reservation Collection (No. 40) is arranged into one series by physical arrangement, as follows:

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

SERIES 1. Photographs, c. 1898-1909, .25 ft (Box ) – Photographs taken by Sumner W. Matteson at the Fourth of July celebrations at the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana. Also two albums containing photographs from the 1920s and from a Catholic girls’ school between 1908 and 1909.

Photographs of Native Americans on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana taken by Sumner W. Matteson. Also contains two albums of photographs from the 1920s and a Catholic girls’ school from 1908-1909 (possibly belonging to Frances Logan).

Crichton
Ethridge

Sumner W. Matteson, (1867-1920/c. 1898-1908),

Sumner W. Matteson broke with his family’s banking traditions to become owner of the Overman Wheel Company which sold bicycles and cameras. After relinquishing management of the Overman, he cycled the country developing his knack for photography and becoming a hunter. The photographs in this collection document Matteson’s stay in Montana during Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Fourth of July Celebrations at Fort Belknap Reservation. In 1906, the editors of Leslie’s Weekly used select photographs from Matteson’s sojourn to try to depict the otherness of Native American culture to mainstream white Americans.