This collection contains 5 photographs of that were collected by William W. Wotherspoon that depict Goyathlay (Geronimo) and Chatto. The bulk of the photos were shot while Goyathlay and Chatto were a prisoners of war at the Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama from 1888-1894.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains five photographs collected by William W. Wotherspoon that depict Goyathlay (Geronimo) and Chatto, two Chiricahua Apache leaders. The bulk of the photos were most likely shot while Goyathlay and Chatto were a prisoners of war at Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama from 1888-1894. One photograph of Goyathlay was shot on May 14, 1905, possibly on his return trip to Fort Sill, Oklahoma from President Theodore Roosevelt's inauguration parade in Washington, DC on March 4, 1905.
The photos on card mounts were shot by different photography studios including Dagle's Studio in Murphysboro, Illinois; Reed and Wallace Co. in Mobile, Alabama; William Reed Studio in Mobile, Alabama; and other unidentified photographers.
William W. Wotherspoon most likely collected the photographs while he served as a post commander at the Mt. Vernon Barracks.
Arrangement:
Arranged in 1 folder by image number.
Biographical / Historical:
William Wallace Wotherspoon was born in Washington, D.C. in 1850. He served as a troop officer and quarter master during the Indian Wars from 1874 to 1881. On May 16, 1889 Lieutenant Wotherspoon became the new post commander at the Mt. Vernon Barracks in Alabama. Goyathlay (Geronimo) and Chatto arrived at the Barracks as prisoners of war in 1888. Their tribe, the Chiricahua Apaches, were forced from their traditional homelands in New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico beginning in the 1850s. Tribal leaders like Goyathlay and Chatto fought to protect their tribal lands, but the U.S. Government ultimately forced the Chiricahua Apaches to move to the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona in an effort to concentrate all Apache-speaking tribes in one location. From 1886 to 1913, the Chiricahua Apaches were transferred as prisoners of war to internment camps in Florida, Alabama, and Oklahoma. Goyathlay died as a prisoner of war on February 17, 1909 in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Chatto eventually settled on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico and died in 1934. Wotherspoon went on to become a military General and Chief of Staff of the United States Army. He died in on October 21, 1921 in Washington, D.C.
Provenance:
Donated by William W. Wotherspoon [grandson of William Wallace Wotherspoon (1850-1921)] in 1972.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William W. Wotherspoon collection of Goyathlay (Geronimo) and Chatto photographs, P#####; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
