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.
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.
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.
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.
A selection of the photographs is available in digital format by clicking on the camera icons in the inventory below.
The collection is open to the public by appointment.
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.
Ferdinand Brady Photographic Postcards, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle
Donated by Jerrold D. Maddocks in 1988
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.
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.
"Tulalip's oldest building"
Copy of Oliver Van Olinda photo