Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow : An Officer’s Photo Album of 1866 New Mexico Territory

In the aftermath of the Civil War, New Mexico Territory endured painful years of hardship and ongoing strife. During this turbulent period, a U.S. military officer stationed in the territory assembled an album of photographs, a series of still shots taken by one or more anonymous photographers. Now, some 150 years later, Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow reproduces the anonymous officer’s “souvenir album” in its totality. Offering an important glimpse of the American Southwest in the mid-1860s, the book opens with a thoughtful foreword by Jennifer Nez Denetdale, who considers the varied and lingering effects that settlement, conquest, and nineteenth-century photography had on the Apaches and Navajos. In her insightful introduction accompanying the photographs, curator and scholar Devorah Romanek places the photographs in historical context and explains their unusual provenance. As she points out, the 1866 album integrates a number of important themes in connection to the Civil War and Reconstruction periods, including the French intervention in New Mexico and the internment of Navajos at the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation. The story of the album’s provenance reads like a mystery: some loose ends remain untied and some questions remain unanswered. In addition to containing what may be the earliest extant photographs of Navajo Indians, the album features both studio and field images of U.S. Army officers, Mexican politicians, and various sites throughout New Mexico. According to Romanek, a number of the album’s photographs have appeared in other publications but with scant attention to their original context or purpose. This compelling book reveals what we know about the collection, its compiler, and the photographer—or photographers—who captured such a fraught and complex moment in the history of the American Southwest. In the aftermath of the Civil War, New Mexico Territory endured painful years of hardship and ongoing strife. During this turbulent period, a U.S. military officer stationed in the territory assembled an album of photographs, a series of still shots taken by one or more anonymous photographers. Now, some 150 years later, 'Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow' reproduces the anonymous officer's "souvenir album" in its totality.0Offering an important glimpse of the American Southwest in the mid-1860s, the book opens with a thoughtful foreword by Jennifer Nez Denetdale, who considers the varied and lingering effects that settlement, conquest, and nineteenth-century photography had on the Apaches and Navajos. In her insightful introduction accompanying the photographs, curator and scholar Devorah Romanek places the photographs in historical context and explains their unusual provenance. As she points out, the 1866 album integrates a number of important themes in connection to the Civil War and Reconstruction periods, including the French intervention in New Mexico and the internment of Navajos at the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation.0The story of the album's provenance reads like a mystery: some loose ends remain untied and some questions remain unanswered. In addition to containing what may be the earliest extant photographs of Navajo Indians, the album features both studio and field images of U.S. Army officers, Mexican politicians, and various sites throughout New Mexico. According to Romanek, a number of the album's photographs have appeared in other publications but with scant attention to their original context or purpose.0This compelling book reveals what we know about the collection, its compiler, and the photographer - or photographers - who captured such a fraught and complex moment in the history of the American Southwest Investigates A Little-known Photo Album Of 63 Mounted Photographs Taken Circa 1866 By One Or More Photographers And Assembled Under The Title Of Souvenir Of New Mexico By A U.s. Army Officer Stationed In New Mexico Territory After The Civil War, Revealing New Stories And Historical Connections Of The Time, Place And People Pictured-- Foreword / By Jennifer Nez Denetdale -- Preface / By Daniel Kosharek -- Faces And Places : Portraits And Landscapes In The Souvenir Album -- Government In Exile : Portraits Of Benito Juárez And His Cabinet -- Hardship And Greed : Portraits Of U.s. Army Officers And Prominent Merchants -- Sorrow : Portraits Of Navajo At The Bosque Redondo. By Devorah Romanek ; Foreword By Jennifer Nez Denetdale ; Preface By Daniel Kosharek. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Foreword by Jennifer Nez Denetdale ix Preface by Daniel Kosharek xv Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1 Faces and Places: Portraits and Landscapes in the Souvenir Album 13 CHAPTER 2 Government in Exile: Portraits of Benito Juárez and His Cabinet 37 CHAPTER 3 Hardship and Greed: Portraits of U.S. Army Officers and Prominent Merchants 45 CHAPTER 4 Sorrow: Portraits of Navajos at Bosque Redondo 53 PLATES 67 Notes 131 Bibliography 151 Index 159 "Investigates a little-known photo album of 63 mounted photographs taken circa 1866 by one or more photographers and assembled under the title of Souvenir of New Mexico by a U.S. Army officer stationed in New Mexico Territory after the Civil War, revealing new stories and historical connections of the time, place and people pictured"-- Provided by publisher Offering an important glimpse of the American Southwest in the mid-1860s, this book opens with a thoughtful foreword by Jennifer Nez Denetdale, who considers the varied and lingering effects that settlement, conquest, and nineteenth-century photography had on the Apaches and Navajos.