Historical Portrait
A Digger Indian family
Archive record
1 photographic print. | Photograph shows eight Indians posed.
About this photograph
The Library of Congress archive record for this 1906 photograph by William Thunen identifies eight people posed together and uses the term "Digger Indian family" in its title. The record does not name the individuals shown.
Photographs of Native people from this period were nearly always made by non-Native photographers working for government surveys, commercial purposes, expositions or ethnographic projects. The people being photographed rarely had control over how the images would be used afterward. Archive catalogues from this era typically name the photographer while leaving subjects unidentified or labelled only by their nation.
The term used in the original title reflects the language and attitudes of the time toward Native peoples. Where names of those photographed were never recorded at the time, that information is usually lost.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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