THE PHOTOGRAPH OF "MONTROVILLE DICKESON"

 

 
The "Montroville Dickeson" photograph

In 2015, my first contribution to the E-Sylum was a question about identifying the photograph said to depict the numismatist Montroville Dickeson and a Native American Chief. Back then, I discovered that the Smithsonian and prominent auction galleries identified the subject not as Dickeson but as the Indian interpreter, Perrin Whitman, with Chief Tamason (Timothy) of the Nez Perce. Still, there was some resistance to identifying the photo as Whitman rather than Dickeson.

A few months ago, Phil Galen, historian for the Village of Gowanda and Town of Persia in New York (Whitman lived with family in New York as a child), posted an image to Whitman's Find a Grave that shows him at an age much closer to the time of the photo taken with Chief Tamason. There is another photograph of Perrin Whitman, apparently from the same time period, seated with a Native Chief. In all these photographs, Whitman appears to be wearing the same suit. In the photo with his brothers, the suit seems to be the same, sans the black tie.

 
Perrin Whitman with his brothers

 
Perrin Whitman with another Indian Chief

 
A comparison of the images

I also found the flipped image posted on Facebook by the North American Indigenous Museum and identified as Whitman and Chief Timothy in 1868.

 

It is clear to me that the photograph numismatic researchers have identified as Montroville Dickeson is not him, and I hope we can all reach this conclusion so that it can be corrected going forward.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
QUERY: IS IT REALLY MONTROVILLE DICKESON IN THIS PHOTO? (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n13a10.html)
MORE ON THE MONTROVILLE DICKESON PHOTO (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n14a11.html)
THE ORIGINAL MONTROVILLE DICKESON PHOTO (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n17a23.html)

See also:
Perrin Whitman (non-Native Interpreter), and Ta-moot-sin or Timothy (Nez Perce), in Washinton D.C. - 1868 (https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=%22perrin%20whitman%22)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web