American Heritage Center
University of Wyoming

Richard Throssel:  Photographer of the Crows

• Introduction

• Throssel's Work

• The Richard Throssel Papers

• Digital Materials

Introduction

Richard Albert Throssel (1882-1933) was born in Marengo, Washington, of French Canadian and Cree Indian descent. Throssel moved to the Crow Indian reservation in southeastern Montana in 1902 for the drier climate and to join his brother Harry as an office clerk. Throssel was adopted by the Crow tribe in 1905 and given the name of Esh Quon Dupahs, or "Kills Inside the Camp."

Richard Throssel, no date.

While at the reservation Throssel bought some camera equipment and took photography through correspondence schools. In 1905, he met photographer Edward S. Curtis, and was briefly instructed by him. Curtis was at the time working on his monumental works The Vanishing Race and North American Indians and invited Throssel to his studio in Seattle for further instruction in photographic techniques. In 1909 Commissioner for Indian Affairs R.G. Valentine appointed Throssel to be field photographer for the Crow reservation and assigned him to take documentary pictures of the tribe in a campaign against tuberculosis.

Shortly afterwards Throssel established his own photography studio, the Throssel Photocraft Company, in Billings, Montana. He worked as a commercial photographer and endeavored to attract attention to his pictures of the Crows through postcards, prints, and giving lantern slide lectures in his studio.

Throssel's Work

Most of the photographs taken by Throssel depict the Crow, or Apsaroke, as they referred to themselves, from 1905-1910. By the early 1900s, the Crows, like other tribes in the country, were being encouraged to assimilate into mainstream white society on reservations. During the reservation period, both men and women continued to use dress and other elements of traditional material culture to retain a sense of individual and cultural identity. Crows had earned the reputation of being "good Indians" by working as scouts for the U.S. Army, especially for General Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.

Throssel showed Crow life from the perspective of a near-insider. He documented a broad range of cultural displays, providing a record of context and change for the Crow's adaptation to reservation life. Many of the works convey spontaneity, with the subjects seemingly unaware of the camera.

The Richard Throssel Papers

Collection contains materials mainly relating to Throssel's photographic work of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indians from 1902-1933. Collection includes 2,481 photographs, glass plate negatives and lantern slides of daily life, ceremonies, portraits and village scenes of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne; what is now the Little Bighorn National Monument; daily life of Billings; Throssel and his family; ranching; and scenery of southern Montana and northern Wyoming (1902-ca. 1920s).

Collection also includes 12 pieces of correspondence with Throssel and of his family (1915-1916, 1928, 1954-1960); manuscripts and speeches by Throssel on Indian culture; newspaper clippings, pamphlets and other printed materials on Throssel and his photography (1900-1963); and 25 paintings by Throssel of outdoor scenes and Crow Indians (1904-1933). The collection is open for use in the AHC Reading Room.

Digital Materials

• Photographs: Sixteen images depicting the Crow Indian nation from 1905-1910.

• Manuscripts: A manuscript on naming Indian children written and the pamphlet Twelve Throssel Prints.

Find out more about Throssel's papers held at the American Heritage Center through the online catalog. You may also contact or visit the Reference Services at the American Heritage Center.

American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, P.O. Box 3924, Laramie, WY 82071.  Phone:  307.766.4114,  Fax:  307.766.5511, Email: shelstad@uwyo.edu.  Copyright © University of Wyoming, 1999-2000.  Created on May 27, 1999.  Last modified on June 03, 2001.