Flathead Indians - Montana Territory - William Henry Harrison Dickinson Photographer
(Montana Territory Photographer) Dickinson, William Henry Harrison. Missoula, Montana Territory . An important CDV albumen photograph of 8 Flathead Indians and one Anglo man standing along side of a building. The photo is back-stamped W.H.H. Dickinson Photographer, Missoula, M.T.
William Henry Harrison Dickinson was born in 1840 in Salem, Ohio and died and was buried in Missoula Cemetery, Missoula, M.T. on Sept. 4, 1910. His life was active with receiving a business education and at the age of 20 he moved to Kansas. He served in the Third Kansas Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. Sometime after 1868 he emigrated to Fort Peck, Fort Benton and then to the Bitterroot Valley where he was a school teacher, miner and photographer. He married Emma Slack on November 5, 1871 near Cornwallis, M.T. Interestingly, she was the first teacher in Missoula history and their marriage is believed to be the 1st performed by a Protestant minister. Eventually they would raise 5 children. In 1872 Dickinson was appointed postmaster in Missoula, became one of the city’s first merchants and served as school clerk and superintendent of schools.
CDV, 4 x 2 1/2 inches, photograph on original mound with Dickinson backstamp. Vg contrast.
