PREFACE. 



It has been customary, heretofore, merely to catalogue the results of 

 each season's operations in a few pamphlet pages of numbers and titles 

 only, but the increasing interest in, and demand for the more striking 

 views, calls for a complete descriptive account of the collection, and I 

 'have endeavored, in the following pages, to supply as much informa- 

 tion as the somewhat limited space allows. The descriptions are mainly 

 compiled from the reports for the corresponding years. 



The collection, thus far, numbers upward of thirteen hundred land- 

 scape negatives, the greater portion of them of subjects that had never 

 been taken, and probably will not be for many years to come, or until the 

 country has advanced into civilization. By no other means could the char- 

 acteristics and wonderful peculiarities of the hitherto almost unknown 

 western half of our continent be brought so vividly to the attention of 

 the world. That they are appreciated, the demand for them, from all 

 quarters of the globe, amply testifies. 



It is not to be expected that they should possess uniform excellence, 

 as the conditions under which they were made were as variable as the 

 winds, and the difficulties encountered and surmounted in obtaining 

 many of the most valuable views, are almost incredible. As a whole, 

 however, their excellence is quite marked, and is a triumph over diffi- 

 culties. 



The Indian catalogue includes a list of over one thousand subjects 

 and sixty-six tribes, representing nearly every portion of the western 

 Territories, and their value to the ethnography of the aborigines will 

 soon be very great. They are mostly studies of their habits and costumes, 

 taken in their own villages and among their own mountains, showing 

 their everyday life. They are fast passing away or conforming to the 

 habits of civilization, and there will be no more faithful record of 

 the past than these photographs. To their future historian they will 

 prove invaluable. 



The subjects made under the direction of this survey formed the nu- 

 cleus, to which has been added nearly one thousand negatives through 

 the munificent liberality of Wm. Blackmore, esq., a wealthy English 

 gentleman, deeply interested in ethnography. The addition is especi- 

 ally valuable as it embraces many other collections, dating back twenty 

 years. 



Especial attention is being paid to the subject each season, and addi- 

 tions made to the collections upon every opportunity. 



