Photographer and beadwork artist unknown
Students in Professor Meredith McCoy’s course Theory and Practice of American Studies (AMST 345) spent several weeks immersed in a material culture learning exercise in Gould Library’s Special Collections classroom. Through close engagement with this nineteenth-century tintype photograph in a Haudenosaunee beaded frame, analysis of archival records and other supporting materials, students worked to uncover the story of the individual named in the photograph’s inscription while exploring the many layered histories embedded in the object itself. The tintype will be on display for two weeks in Gould Library’s reference room.
From the students’ findings:
This item presents a number of loose historical threads. On the back appears: “Henry Rencountre” and “Hampton Institute,” a school in Virginia founded to ‘civilize’ freed Black men and later forcefully assimilate Indigenous people. Henry Rencountre attended this school in the 1880s as a blacksmithing student from the Lower Brule Agency in Dakota Territory, but his relationship to this object is unknown. The frame contains Haudenosaunee beadwork dating from the 1890s to the 1920s, notably after Henry’s death in 1884. This specific style of raised beadwork is exclusive to the Haudenosaunee, whose lands are the present-day northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Inside the frame is a tintype, among the earliest forms of mass-produced photography. But the identity of the person in the tintype and their relationship to the frame, Hampton Institute, and Henry remain a mystery.
The frame
During the late 19th century, items like this frame became highly desirable as “kitschy” tourist souvenirs, sold near tourist attractions like Niagara Falls in the Northeastern United States and Southeastern Canada. Haudenosaunee women took advantage of local tourism to shape a souvenir market, which they used to preserve their artistry and gain economic independence in the face of cultural erasure under colonialism.
Digital microscope imaging indicates that the frame may include linen, wool, and velvet, as well as glass seed and tubular beads. The beadwork patterns, which are particular to specific artists, often depict natural elements and spiritual symbols. Of the five nations in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the beadwork patterns and colors in the frame most closely align with Mohawk designs of the time.
The original purchasing of this item is unknown, yet it has spent the last few decades in Massachusetts, likely in the private collection of Gary Oleason and Francine Ness. But who made it? Who purchased it from the artist? And how many hands has it passed through?
Tintypes
Within this frame, we see a tintype photograph, chemically printed on a sheet of steel using silver nitrate. These photographs were developed in black and white and are sensitive to light exposure, but can last forever with proper conservation. Tintypes were an early, affordable method of portrait photography, becoming widely available in the late 19th century at fairs, tourist attractions, etc. Due to the long exposure time required to capture an image like the one shown here, tintypes often featured intentional posing and elaborate painted backdrops. Magnified inspection of this image appears to show the subject standing on grass, suggesting this photo may have been taken outside. So where was this photo taken? Who took this photo and why?
Photographs were commonly used as propaganda to promote certain agendas, including at federal Indian boarding schools like the Hampton Institute or Carlisle. These types of photographs were often taken by contracted photographers who captured students learning and working to depict the success of “civilizing” missions. While dress in images could be used as evidence of assimilation, it was also common practice to dress up for portraits for personal use. This tintype’s edges have been cut to fit the beaded frame, perhaps reflective of how tintypes were often cut to fit frames and even to be carried in pockets. It’s unclear what the purpose of this particular photograph was. Is it meant to show “civilization” at work? Or was it taken for another purpose? How did this tintype and the beaded frame ultimately come together? And, the question remains, who is it a picture of?
The Hampton Institute & Henry Rencountre
The back of the frame reads “Henry Rencountre” and “Hampton Institute.” The Hampton Institute was a school founded in 1868 to provide education to former enslaved Africans and later to forcibly assimilate Native American peoples. From 1878 to 1881, Henry Rencountre (Lower Brule Lakota) was a student there. Described as “an utterly dull young man” who “never should have been sent,” educators at Hampton saw him as a failure. But who defines failure? Was Henry’s behavior actually resistance to Hampton’s forced assimilatory structure?
Records associated with the frame suggest that Henry’s brother was Alex Recountre, the official interpreter for the Lower Brule Agency who interpreted for the Agreement of the Lower Brule Sioux in 1898 and whose children also attended Hampton with Henry. Henry’s father may have been Zephyr Recountre, also a well-known Lower Brule interpreter. After Henry’s return to Lower Brule in 1881, he lived with his mother until his death in 1884.
Inconsistencies and mysteries surround this object. Henry’s death in Lower Brule (currently South Dakota) likely predates the creation of the frame in Mohawk territory (currently New York), and the image may or may not be of a student at Hampton. Given this, Henry’s exact relationship to the frame and tintype is unknown. While his name appears on the back, is he depicted in the tintype? Was he the owner of the frame? Or, because of his association with famous translators, was his name simply pulled from government documents by collectors and written on the back at a later date?
Join us on February 19th in the reference room at Gould Library to learn more! Student researchers and Associate Professor of American Studies and History Meredith McCoy along with Special Collections Librarian Jackie Beckey will be on hand. Remarks will begin at noon.