Red Shirt of the Oglala Lakota, 1887
Elliott & Fry of London

A cabinet card portrait of Red Shirt, a chief and statesman of the Oglala Lakota people.

Red Shirt supported Crazy Horse during the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877. After the war he moved to an area in South Dakota now known as Red Shirt. In 1880 he was one of the delegates who visited Washington, D.C. In 1887 he was one of the stars of Buffalo Bill’s (William Cody’s) Wild West Show when it visited England. 

Departing New York on 31 March 1887 aboard the SS State of Nebraska, the company included 97 Native Americans, 18 buffalo, 2 deer, 10 elk, 10 mules, 5 Texan steers, 4 donkeys and 108 horses. The Native Americans were well paid and well fed. The tour last five months and visited Birmingham, Salford and London. Queen Victoria, accompanied by Princess Alexandra and Prince Albert Edward, came to see the show during its run at Earl’s Court in London and met some of the cast afterwards. Speaking through an interpreter, Red Shirt expressed his pleasure at meeting the Queen, telling her ‘I have come many thousands of miles to see you. Now that I have seen you, my heart is glad.’ The encounter and his words were widely reported in the press and noted in the Queen's journal. 

While in England Red Shirt and his companions also saw Henry Irving’s production of Goethe’s Faust at the Lyceum Theatre (although the Sioux do not believe in Hell) and he also visited Westminster Abbey. In 1889 the show returned to Europe, this time spending six months in Paris. Wild Westing with Cody was Red Shirt’s main source of income for several decades. He died on 4 January 1925 and was buried at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

Photographed by Elliott & Fry of Baker Street, London. 

The caption in the lower margin claims that the photographers had copyrighted the portrait. In fact, the records show that Elliott and Fry only filed for copyright on two of the portraits they took of performers in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and both of these were portraits of Sergeant Bates, who carried the American flag in the show. These were entered at Stationers’ Hall on 24 June 1887. 

Condition: the print is a Woodburytype and is in excellent condition, with very good tonal range. The mount presents some foxing in its lower margin and on its reverse but is otherwise clean and firm. It has been trimmed slightly along its upper and lower edges. 

Dimensions: the whole card measures 6.1” ‘by 4.2” (15.5 cm by 10.6 cm).