American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography, including The Larry Ness Collection of Native American Photography

5 1/4 x 7 7/8 in. albumen photograph on 8 x 10 in. mount, with printed paper labels affixed to lower margin, one identifying the subject as "Man-A-To-Wah. / Many Scalps. / A Fox Chief," of Kansas, and crediting the photograph to Shindler; the other bearing copyright information. Verso bears partly printed exhibition label from the Second International Congress of Eugenics held at the Museum of Natural History in New York, 1921.

In this seated studio portrait, likely captured while Many Scalps was visiting Washington, DC as part of the Sauk and Fox delegation that signed a treaty ceding land in Kansas in exchange for reservations in present-day Oklahoma, Man-A-To-Wah wears moccasins, hide leggings, a striped shirt, a large bear claw necklace, and a blanket wrapped around his waist.

Provenance: American Indian Photography Collection of John W. Painter (1929-2008); Cowan's Auctions, American History, 12 June 2015, Lot 308.