Document text
Imagery of War: Artists, photographers and the Modoc War By Lee Juillerat Updated: Jan 11, 2023 03:20 PM A A The main U.S. Army encampment at the Lava Beds is shown in this artist rendering produced in 1873. [Photo courtesy Klamath County Museum] Pictured from left are Shacknasty Jim, Hooker Jim, Steamboat Frank, Modoc Indians, and John Fairchild, a rancher, in a photo taken shortly after the end of the Modoc War. [Photo courtesy Klamath County Museum] Photos of the Modoc War of 1872-73 will be featured as part of an ongoing commemoration of the Modoc War that raged 150 years ago. The event, “Imagery of War: Artists, Photographers and the Modoc War,” is planned for 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 17, at the Merrill Historical and Modoc War Museum in the Klamath County community of Merrill. The event is sponsored by the Merrill Museum in partnership with Lava Beds National Monument and the Klamath County Museum. “The Merrill Museum is fortunate to have a complete set of photos taken by two photographers who visited the Lava Beds in 1873,” said Todd Kepple, Klamath County Museum director. “We’ll be taking a close look at those images, along with artist etchings that were reproduced in newspapers across the country and even in Europe.” Louis Heller, a photographer based in Yreka, California, took numerous portrait photos of Modoc participants shortly after the hostilities ceased. His images include pictures of Captain Jack and other Modocs, including Jack and others who were eventually executed at Fort Klamath. “These images are both striking and haunting to look at today, considering what those men had endured,” Kepple said. “Mr. Heller performed a great service by making the trip to the Upper Klamath Basin and persuading officials to allow him to take the pictures.” The Merrill Museum also has a complete set of stereoscopic photos taken by Eadweard Muybridge, who was commissioned by the U.S. Army to take photos of Army personnel, Indian Scouts and battlefield scenes in the Lava Beds. The photo collections were donated to the Merrill Museum by George Simmons and the Fioch family. During the Jan. 17 program, two former National Park Service employees, Eric Gleason and Jacqui Cheung, will show photos they took following a 2008 fire that swept across the Lava Beds and revealed several sites. They took numerous photos of the same locations visited by Muybridge in 1873. While photography had been invented well before the Modoc War, technology had not yet been developed for reproducing photos in newspapers, so newspapers and magazines reproduced etchings carved by artists to show war scenes. “A lot can be learned about how newspapers and magazines represented the conflict to their readers,” said Matt Voelkel, the Klamath County Museum’s curator. He noted several examples of such etchings related to the Modoc War will be shown and discussed at the program. The program can be viewed live online. To request an invite to the Zoom presentation, call the Klamath County Museum at 541-882-1000. The upcoming program is part of an ongoing series of presentations related to the 150th anniversary of the Modoc War. The next event, “Perspectives on the Modoc War: Why It Still Matters,” is Feb. 25 at the Klamath County Museum in Klamath Falls. It will feature a group of historians in a panel discussion. More Modoc War programs are being planned for March and April. For more information, call the Lava Beds office at 530-667-8110 or visit the park’s website at www.nps.gov/labe .