Pima Basketmaker, ca. 1900

Arizona Indians: Basket Weaver [Photograph]

Putnam, Arion

Notes: A gelatin silver print photograph showing a Pima (probably) woman kneeling on the ground with a basket on her lap. Behind her sits a young child, with the door of a wickiup dwelling in the background. She is surrounded by basket-making supplies, laying on cloth blankets, in finished baskets, and in metal tins. The woman and her child are wearing print dresses.

This is an attractive image, printed in the center of a paper sheet, with a decorative photographic vignette of cactus-filled landscape at the lower right corner.

Image: 8 by 4-1/2 inches; sheet: 13-1/4 by 8-1/4 inches. Marked "Copyright 1900 (?) By A. Putnam." Putnam (1870–1949). Arion worked for his father John R. Putnam and Carlton Valentine, the owners of Putnam and Valentine, a prominent Los Angeles photography studio from the 1890s into the twentieth century. For a time, Arion was a photographer for the Southern Pacific and he may have made this image while touring the Southwest for the railroad.

The image is stamped on the verso (back), "Arizona Indians | Putnam & Valentine Photo. Los Angeles, Cal." The words "basket weaver" are added in pencil. There is what is perhaps an image number, "683" stamped above and a later (?) number, "133" in the upper right corner.

Edition + Condition: An excellent image, with very nice contrast and tonal range, decoratively printed with the vignette. There is a bit of finger soiling to the right margin, but the image is otherwise fine. The photograph is enclosed in a 17-by-14-inch mat, held in place with photo corners.

Publication: Los Angeles: Putnam and Valentine, [1900, but printed slightly later?].

Item No: #360832

Price: $1,250