Photo: Two men photographed by Benedicte Wrensted in southern Idaho, sometime from 1895-1912, Wikimedia
The Wrensted photos of Indigenous people in southern Idaho are the best for their time period, 1895-1912. Not only are they technically flawless, they portray a natural dignity that never looks staged.
Benedicte Wrensted (1859-1949), a Danish photographer who had been taught by her Aunt Charlotte Wrensted (also a professional) set up shop in Pocatello, Idaho in the 1895. In 1909, her U.S.-born niece, Ella Wrensted-Boone (1892-1986), joined her studio as an assistant and continued taking pictures with her aunt Benedicte. I found these photos on Wikimedia Commons, and was impressed at the clarity of the images.
From what is available, the Wrensteds were not anthropologists. There doesn’t seem to be any attempt to stage the people in any fashion to make them seem more “traditional.”
The people (her photographic “subjects,” how I dislike that term) came to her in a variety of clothing of the time. Some wear their regalia, others wear semi-formal Victorian-era garb.
There is some evidence the Wrensteds were trying to create an anthropological record of Indian life of the time. But there are few surviving notes, or descriptions of the people. It was only only guessed that the people came from the Shoshone-Bannock Native Community from the nearby Fort Hall Indian Reservation. In the very least we have the dates, 1895-1912, the years she operated her studio.
Working with the Native communities, the Archives have identified 84% of the people in the photos. All the photos in this exhibit are from the National Archives, via, Wikimedia Commons. Possibly 170 Wrensted photos exist in private collections.
For more information on the Wrensteds click here “Photographs, Pistols and Parasols: Celebrating Early Women Artisan Photographers.”
For more on Benedicte Wrensted, click here for her Wikipedia article
