Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
Ferdinand Brady Photographic Postcards, circa 1907-1920
Overview of the Collection
- Photographer
- Brady, Ferdinand
- Title
- Ferdinand Brady Photographic Postcards
- Dates
- circa 1907-1920 (inclusive)19021925
- Quantity
- 134 photographic postcards
- Collection Number
- 1988.11
- Summary
- Photographic postcards depicting scenes from the Tulalip Indian School and reservation, and images of Everett, Marysville, Langley and other Washington towns.
- Repository
-
Museum of History & Industry, Sophie Frye Bass Library
P.O. Box 80816
Seattle, WA
98108
Telephone: 2063241126 x102
library@mohai.org - Access Restrictions
-
The collection is open to the public by appointment.
- Languages
- English.
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
Ferdinand (Ferd) Brady was born in Benton County, Oregon on March 27, 1880. In the early 1900s, Brady moved to Marysville, Washington, where he met Mr. and Mrs. Woods, a couple who ran a local photo studio. Brady learned about photography and the business from the Woods', who sold Brady their Marysville studio upon their retirement. Brady worked as a photographer in Marysville from 1907 until 1911, when he moved his studio to Everett. It was at this time that Brady was contracted by the government to photograph the Tulalip Indian Reservation near Marysville in Snohomish County.
In the 1920s, Brady and his wife moved to Anacortes, Washington. Brady worked with the photographer George W. Bower as "Bower and Brady" till 1926, when he purchased the Anacortes Photo Studio from Helen Iverson and Anna Bull. Though he moved shop locally four times, Brady maintained his photography studio in Anacortes until he sold the business upon his retirement in 1952. In the 1960s, Brady moved to the Kings Garden Nursing Home in Seattle, where he died on May 20, 1967.
Historical BackgroundReturn to Top
The Tulalip Indian School
The Tulalip Indian Boarding School opened in 1905 in a large, newly built facility on the Tulalip Indian reservation near Marysville, along the shore of Tulalip Bay. The school was filled to its capacity of 200 students within two years of opening, some recruited from reservation day schools, and others from off-reservation communities. Though education at Tulalip ended at the eighth grade level, some students continued with advanced training at Chemawa near Salem, Oregon or at other Indian schools.
The Tulalip Indian School was part of a national system of Indian education whose underlying goal was the assimilation of Indians into white American culture. Schools both on and off the reservation sought to "civilize" children by removing them from the influences of traditional life and immersing them in white ways. Students were prohibited from speaking native languages, even among themselves; it was English or nothing. The school routine was strictly regimented and the method of instruction in direct contrast to that of traditional cultures, where learning was a result of observation and practice.
In addition to eliminating the influence of traditional cultures, the government also aimed to train students to be self-supporting within their new way of life. They were taught skills which, not coincidentally, were also necessary to maintain the school, such as sewing, laundry work, carpentry and farming. Critics complained that such skills were of debatable value to the Indians and that the low level of job training virtually guaranteed long-term inequality.
In the 1920s, criticism of the Indian Schools grew; they were expensive, overcrowded, encouraged dependency rather than self-sufficiency, required too much labor from students, and had substandard teachers. In the 1930s, federal Indian policy began to shift, and Indian education began to favor courses more appropriate to the diversity of cultures. More and more Indian children nationwide attended public school and the states assumed more control over Indian education. The Tulalip Indian Boarding School closed in 1932.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The majority of the photographs on these postcards were taken on the Tulalip reservation at the Tulalip Indian School between 1910 and 1917, with most dating around 1912. Most of the remaining images depict scenes in western Washington cities such as Marysville, Everett and Langley; a few depict towns further east such as Soap Lake. These images include landscapes, street scenes and images of lumbering and other industries.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Alternative Forms Available
A selection of the photographs is available in digital format by clicking on the camera icons in the inventory below.
Restrictions on Use
The Museum of History & Industry is the owner of the materials in the Sophie Frye Bass Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from MOHAI before any reproduction use. The museum does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.
Preferred Citation
Ferdinand Brady Photographic Postcards, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Arrangement
The postcards are arranged into two series, The Tulalip Indian School and Other Washington State images. Since the postcards were numbered by the Museum prior to arrangement into series, item numbers within series are not in strict numerical order.
Location of Collection
2b.2.8Acquisition Information
Donated by Jerrold D. Maddocks in 1988
Related Materials
Ferd Brady Photograph Collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies at Western Washington University.
The Anacortes History Museum has a large number of Ferdinand Brady images among its collection of materials donated by Wallie Funk.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
Tulalip Indian School, Tulalip Washington, 1910-1917Return to Top
These images were taken at the Tulalip Indian School on the Tulalip Indian reservation near Marysville, Washington. A few images depict reservation Indians in traditional dress but most images are of the School itself and its students. These include scenes of students working on tasks, posed in athletic uniforms, canoeing, as well as interiors and exteriors of school buildings. Some are inscribed with captions dating them between 1910 and 1917 as noted below; the majority is undated but thought to be from the same period.
Description | Dates |
---|---|
1: Schoolgirls in uniform |
|
3: Girls making bread |
|
4, 74: Sawmill exterior
|
|
5: Sawmill interior |
|
6: Man and two boys |
|
8: Construction of highway bridge |
|
9, 85: Students in dining hall
|
|
10: Ten boys on a horse |
|
11: Grounds and dock
|
|
12: Tulalip Band |
|
16: Kitchen girls
|
|
17: Man in traditional dress |
|
18: Woman in traditional buckskin dress |
|
19: Young men in suits and hats |
|
20: Laundry room |
|
21: Women in automobile |
|
22: Tulalip Indian couple in front of home |
|
23: Dunbar family
|
|
24: Tulalip Indians working on a log boom |
|
25, 26: Boys' canoe race
|
|
28: Girls in canoe |
|
29: Girls' dormitory |
|
30: Girls' canoe race |
1917 July 4 |
31: Canoe parade |
|
33: Girls basketball team |
1910 |
35-37: View of school and grounds across Tulalip Bay |
|
38: Mission Head |
|
39: Woman in traditional dress in canoe |
|
40: Boys in racing canoe |
|
44, 45: Woman in traditional dress |
|
52: Dining hall |
|
53: Group of girls |
|
54: Girls basketball team |
|
55: Baseball team |
|
56: Girls basketball team |
|
57, 58: Girls Second Basketball Team |
1912 |
59: Baseball team
|
|
60: Football Team
|
1911 |
61: Dining hall |
1910 |
62: Baseball team |
|
63: Hospital staff
|
|
64: Crowd in bleachers |
|
65: Playing Old Time Games, Treaty Day celebration |
1912 January 22 |
1912 January 22 | |
67: Boys and horses by wood pile |
|
68: House boys with pails |
|
69: Staff group |
|
70: Indian man in automobile |
|
71: School grounds |
|
72: Boy with milk cow |
|
73: Boys near barn |
|
75, 78, 80: Two boys swimming in bay |
|
76: Boys swimming |
|
79: Boys loading dirt into wheelbarrows |
|
81: Students on lawn |
|
82: Group of men |
|
84: Group of young boys with William Shelton |
|
86: School building
|
|
87: Catholic Church |
|
88: School office building
"Tulalip's oldest building"
|
|
89: Agent's home |
|
90: Young women in buckskin dresses with face paint |
|
91, 92: Boys' dormitory |
|
93: Hospital building |
|
94: Laundry building |
|
95: Tulalip dock with wooden boathouse |
|
96: Club house, Tulalip Club |
|
97: Bandstand |
|
98: Shop |
|
99: Athletic field |
|
100: Sewing room |
|
101: Girl in traditional dress |
|
113: Superintendent Charles Buchanan and staff |
|
117: Tulalip Bay |
|
119: Tulalip Head |
Other Washington State , undatedReturn to Top
Description | Dates |
---|---|
15, 46-50: Indian crafts on display at fair |
|
51: Orchestra at Island County Fair in Langley |
1917 |
77, 105: Men with pile driver |
|
103: Men and equipment, possibly for road building |
|
106, 107: Lumber camp, men with steam donkey |
|
108: Steamship in harbor |
|
109: Children with cakes |
|
111, 112: Commercial street, possibly Marysville |
|
114: Engine hauling logs, M & N Railroad |
|
115: Battleship Oregon, Everett |
|
116: Creosote Works, Lowell |
|
118: Part of 12000 Cords of wood, E.P. & P. Company woodyard |
|
120: Band "The Hottest Coon in Dixie" |
|
121: Parade, possibly Marysville |
|
122: Marysville School auto, Shoultes route |
|
123: Thomas Sanitarium, Soap Lake |
|
124: Parade, probably Everett |
|
125: Providence Hospital, Everett |
|
126: 7th Street School, Marysville |
|
127: Road to Index
Copy of Oliver Van Olinda photo
|
|
128: Town with mountain |
|
129: Commercial street, Ephrata |
|
130: Breakers on Soap Lake. Photo by Young |
|
131: School house, Langley |
|
132: Wharf, Langley |
|
133: Newell's Trout Hatchery, Langley |
|
134: Mount Index, Index |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Canoe racing--Washington (State)--Tulalip Indian Reservation--Photographs
- Gambling--Washington (State)--Tulalip Indian Reservation--Photographs
- Indians of North America--Northwest, Pacific--Arts & crafts--Photographs
- Indians of North America--Washington (State)--Tulalip Indian Reservation--Clothing & dress--Photographs
- Lumber camps--Washington (State)--Photographs
- Students--Washington (State)--Tulalip Indian Reservation--Photographs
- Tulalip Indian Reservation (Wash.)--Photographs
- Tulalip Indian School (Wash.)--Photographs
Geographical Names
- Everett (Wash.)
- Index (Wash.)
- Langley (Wash.)
- Marysville (Wash.)
- Soap Lake (Wash.)
- Tulalip Indian Reservation (Wash.)
Form or Genre Terms
- Photographic postcards