Princess Angeline (circa 1816-1896) was the daughter of Chief Seattle, the leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes during the time of the first Seattle settlers. Angeline was originally named Kikisoblu (spelled many different ways in English), but a white pioneer, in some accounts Catherine Maynard, named her Angeline, and the white community in Seattle referrred to her alternately as Princess Angeline or Queen Angeline. She stayed in the city after the Seattle native peoples were forced to relocate to the Port Madison Reservation, and she lived in a house located on Western Avenue between Pine and Pike Streets, near what is now Pike Place Market. Angeline worked as a laundress and basket weaver. When she died on May 31, 1896, her passing was mourned by the city, and her funeral procession included some of the most influential Seattle residents. She was buried in Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill, Seattle near the grave of pioneer Henry Yesler.
Angeline was an icon of early Seattle, and was the purported heroine of a oft-told and revised story in which she was supposed to have warned the early white settlers of Seattle about an impending Indian attack prior to the so-called "Battle of Seattle" on January 26, 1856. In some tellings, Chief Seattle or another local native American, Curley (also known as Sucquardle), warned the settlers. In any case, Angeline became a well-loved figure to Seattleites both during her lifetime and for years after her death, probably due also to her continued presence in downtown Seattle. Angeline was photographed by early Seattle photographers such as Edwin J. Bailey, Edward S. Curtis, Asahel Curtis, and Frank La Roche. Her image was duplicated and altered multiple times; changes included the addition of open eyes, which were drawn onto Angeline's closed eyes.
Early photographers often did not pay much attention to the intellectual property rights of fellow photographers. Even notices of copyright marked on negatives or prints did not stop photographers and publishers from using works for their own gain without attribution to the originators. In the same way that authorship was ignored, the authenticity of images is frequently difficult to determine, as photographers also altered the images of fellow artists in order to use them in their own work. The Princess Angeline collection demonstrates the repeated copying and alteration of photographs by publishers and photographers; in particular, the postcards in the collection show the fluid definition of authenticity and authorship in the booming postcard publishing industry of the early 1900s.
The contents of this collection have been transferred from the Portrait File, the General Indian Collection, and the Subject Postcard Collection to represent the diversity of images of Princess Angeline in a unified collection, allowing viewers to observe how images of Angeline were duplicated and altered through reprinting and publication in multiple media formats, particularly through postcards published in the early 1900s.
Entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries' Digital Collections website. Permission of Visual Materials Curator is required to view originals. Contact Special Collections for more information.
Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.
Processed by Elizabeth Russell, 2010.
Transferred from Portrait File, Postcard File, and General Indian Collection, 2009.
Additional photographs of Angeline not represented in this collection are in the following photograph collections: Boyd and Braas, Frank La Roche, Elite Studio, Hamilton, and A.C. Warner. The Denny Hall clock, from 1895, now standing in Suzzallo Library Espresso at the University of Washington, features an inlay of Princess Angeline.
Portraits of Angeline represented in the collection include photographic prints and color postcard images. Postcards with photographic prints are listed as photographs.
Item 1b is a copy print of item 1a.
Printed on postcard: Romans Photo Co.10923.
Printed on verso: This card is a real photograph made by Romans Photographic Co., Seattle.
This postcard photograph is a print of a circa 1887 portrait of Angeline taken by either Samuel F. or John C. McKnight.
Printed on the copy negative for this photo: Bailey, Third and Seneca Streets, Seattle; however, the above text has been cropped away in the print.
Handwritten story on verso.
Same item is in PHColl277 Boyd and Braas Photograph Collection.
These four photos, which are very similar, were likely taken at the same time.
This is a copy from the photograph in the Thomas Prosch Seattle Views Album, volume 2, page 82, PH Coll. 27. The Prosch caption reads: Picture taken in Madrona Park, in 1892, by John P. Soule. As far as known, she then took her first, and perhaps last, street car ride.
A copy owned by Seattle Public Library has a caption with copyright notice for 1893, by Soule.
Black and white print is from colored half-tone image copied when on loan; the photograph was probably taken by John P. Soule in 1892, in the same sitting as items 4, 4a, 5 and 5a.
There is a sticker on verso from the Seattle National Bank with an image of Chief Seattle (Sealth) that reads: Capital $250,000. This may have been a promotional item.
This is an enlargement of the original image by Edward S. Curtis in
Prosch also used a portion of this image in his Indian Albums, vol. 2, page 4, PH Coll. 18.
See two postcards based on this portrait, items 18 and 19.
On verso there is a narrative which attributes to Angeline the warning which saved the Seattle pioneers from a massacre, and there is a note advertising that this photograph card is available for sale at Balke, Cole, and Co.'s Art Rooms.
Black and white print from colored half-tone.
Same image as in Lowman and Handford postcards, items 21 and 22.
Seattle sculptor James Wehn trained in the Pacific Northwest and in Chicago. His most noted sculpture in Seattle is probably the bronze statue of Chief Seattle, completed in 1912, that stands in Tilikum Place Park near the monorail. Wehn was the first head of the University of Washington's sculpture department from 1919-1924.
Postcards of Angeline were often based on photographs, but were altered in significant ways through coloring and changes and additions to her image. Many of these postcards feature Angeline against pristine wilderness settings, far from her actual location living and working in the midst of the rapidly growing city of Seattle.
Based on Frank La Roche photograph in PH Coll. 283. La Roche photograph has date August 1898 handwritten below image, but Angeline died in 1896.
Item 17a has a lighter color palette and more sky visible above Angeline's head; item 17b has a darker color palette with Angeline's figure slightly enlarged.
Postcard message written in Spanish and dated February 27, 1902, relates to Princess Angeline.
Postcard is addressed to Miss Myra H. Ober, Beverly, MA. and contains UW Professor Caroline Ober's description of Princess Angeline, including the story that shop owners in Seattle allowed Angeline to take whatever she needed from their stores without payment. Ober adds: "Her desires were very modest, however." Postcard dated Jan. 1, 1901.
Based on photograph taken by A.C. Warner and used by O.T. Frasch; see item 23.
Text printed on verso of card is titled: History of Princess Angeline Seattle (Related by Chief Seattle's grandson "Moses.") It tells the story of how Angeline warned the white settlers during the Treaty War of 1856 that "bad Indians" were coming to kill the whites. The story mentions the U.S. gunboat
Angeline is dressed in dark green shawl and red and white kerchief, with cane just showing at bottom of frame.
Based on Edward S. Curtis portrait; see item 6.
Princess Angeline lived for some years in a wooden house near the Seattle waterfront probably near the foot of Pike Street. It was possibly built in 1881. According to some sources, Seattle businessman Amos Brown built a new cabin for her in 1891. After Angeline's death in 1896, her grandson may have continued to live in the cabin, and it was most likely photographed in the years following her death as well as during her lifetime.
Young man partially cut off by frame at right may be Angeline's grandson Joe Foster.
Warner's photograph cropped and copied for postcard by O.T. Frasch. See A.C. Warner Collection, PHColl 273, for original photo.
Caption printed on photograph: Princess Angeline daughter of Chief Seattle at her cottage foot of Pike St.
Items 24a-d are all copies of a photograph; the original version of the image is not in the collection. 24a is a later print than items b-d, but includes more of the original image.
Cropped version of the image in 24a.
Cropped version of the image in 24a.
Cropped version of the image in 24a.
Painting is by C.C. Maring.
Grave marker placed by the Seattle Historical Society in 1958.