The Dickinson Research Center recently acquired a stereograph (stereoview) of a group of Native Americans of various tribal affiliations incarcerated at Fort Marion (also known as Castillo de San Marcos) in St. Augustine, Florida beginning on May 21, 1875. The stereograph is important,
and perhaps rare, because it contains an image of Captain Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924) with possibly George Fox, his interpreter and a group of the prisoners.

Standing as a group to the left are three white gentlemen, one of whom is clearly a U.S. army officer. That officer is Pratt, who oversaw the transport of these prisoners of war from Indian Territory to Fort Marion and was in charge of them there until their release in mid-1878. Interpreter George Fox is thought to be the man standing immediately to the right of Pratt.

Above right, one of the prisoners named Zotom (1853-1913) depicts a van-dyked Pratt and a muttonchopped Fox. Compare the hat, tie and coat.

The seventy-one men and one woman selected for imprisonment included thirty-three Cheyennes, two Arapahos, nine Comanches, one Caddo, and twenty-seven Kiowas. Intent on assimilating these inmates into the "white" culture of the time and believing that the government must "kill the Indian to save the man," Pratt encouraged them with educational opportunities by introducing them to language, religion, art, guard duty, and craftsmanship instruction. Furthermore, he facilitated their expression of art by keeping in stock a variety of art supplies and drawing books (pencils, crayons, and ledger books). In 1879 Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania which was the first off-reservation boarding school for Native American students. An advocate until the end of his days for Indian education and change in federal Indian policy, Pratt died on April 23, 1924 in San Francisco and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

For more about the Fort Marion experience and the POW artists who created ledger drawings there, one should read Joyce M. Szabo's Art from Fort Marion: The Silberman Collection, volume 4 in this museum's The Western Legacies Series. Additionally featured in this book are other stereoview images of the Fort Marion prisoners from the Dickinson Research Center collections. To view some of the ledger art that this museum holds and all the Center's Fort Marion stereoviews go to the Image Archive. and in the subjects field type- Castillo* -then enter.

Back to Curatorial Home