Thomas Prosch was a journalist and civic booster who had a great love of history. Prosch focused much of his energy on recording and preserving the history of the region and on civic improvement. He spent time walking through the town of Seattle photographing and documenting its history. He assembled the photographs he made and collected from others into annotated albums depicting various topics--Seattle, Washington State, Indians. He also assembled a dictionary of Chinook trade jargon and an extensive private library of Northwest history materials. He was frequently asked to speak at historical events. Prosch and his wife died in a tragic automobile accident in 1915 when the car they were in went off the road and into the Duwamish River as they were returning from a meeting at the Washington State Historical Society.
Two albums of photographs depicting Washington and British Columbia Indians taken by a number of early photographers, including Dr. E.H. Latham, Henry Fair, S.G. Morse, Anders Wilse, E.S. Meany, Webster and Stevens, B.C. Collier and Theodore E. Peiser. Indian tribes represented include Columbia River Indians, Nez Perce, Yakama, Chelan, Clallum and Indians of Puget Sound in general. Also included are images of Chief Joseph, Chief Seattle and Angeline. Photos date from circa 1864 to 1912.
Photocopies of the albums are available for viewing.
See also Native American Microfiche (NA 1284-1391)
Access restricted. Original albums are not available to the public. Photocopies of the albums are available for viewing.
Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.
Processed by Ashby Lee Collinson and Marion Brown, 2008
Handwritten on photo: Before the Chief would pose for this picture, he exacted $10 from the artist.
Handwritten on photo: Said to be the oldest of Nez Perces, 100 snows and more, in the Indian war of 1877, when Joseph led her tribesmen, she carried a gun, and fought like a man.
Handwritten on photo: Nez Perce War Parade.
Handwritten on photo: The great Doctor Two Moons is pictured as dancing on right of group.
Handwritten on photo: The spots painted on shoulder and flank show where the balls struck the horse when it was shot from under the rider.
Walla-qua-mit, Chu-ya (Umatilla), Jim White (the younger brother of White Bird).
A brother of Chief Moses who was the head chief of the Yakamas for forty years.
Handwritten on photo: An Aristocrat among the Columbia Valley natives.
Handwritten on photo: A very noted Columbia River Indian.
Handwritten on photo: Half-breed on the right hand.
Handwritten on photo: Sin, shame, suicide. Tragic end of an Indian in the Wenatchee in the Wenatchee jail, slow and deliberate self strangulation.
Possibly a set up photo.
Handwritten on photo: The Wapato family is one of much local distinction. John is very old, blind and religious. He preaches every Sunday, usually twice or thrice."
Handwritten on photo: Tents, wagons, all, indicate travelers moving and living comfortably.
Handwritten on photo: Tenting on the old campground. Familiar scene in Eastern Washington.
Handwritten on photo: Nez Perce Indians in temporary camp on the Lapwai Reservation. Idaho; poor, dirty and wretched, but not much more so than white campers.
Handwritten on photo: A Lapwai grandfather surrounded by the works and marks of civilization-his clothing, the electric pole and barbed wire fence-he is an Indian still, too old and fixed to conform to all the conditions and ways of the white men he sees and knows.
Handwritten on photo: One of the older, more primitive, kind.
Handwritten on photo: Two of the younger, more modern kind.
Handwritten on photo: A present day Indian, in the prime of life, mounted on his favorite animal, the horse, in the land of his people, the Lapwai.
Handwritten on photo: Probably the same Indian [in previous photo], giving the boy a lesson in horsemanship, acquainting him with the country, and making of him a brave, worthy son of a worthy father.
Handwritten on photo: Friends, possibly Sisters. Such as these, women of the Twentieth Century, are to be seen daily in the towns of Washington.
Handwritten on photo: A young beauty.
Handwritten on photo: An Indian family well advanced in industry, thrift, enlightenment. Compares favorably with many white families.
Handwritten on photo: Who in 1838 came with Marcus Whitman and established to A.B.C.F.M. mission at Lapwai.
Copied by Boyd and Braas
Handwritten on photo: Seattle was large, strong and commanding in his youthful days, a warrior of success and fame. He was also an orator of ability. In his later years he was bent, feeble and poor. This photograph, by Sammis, is the only picture take of him in life.
Handwritten on photo: Flag by Thomas W. Prosch
Handwritten on photo: She was the daughter and last surviving child of Chief Seattle. Her maternal parent is not known, as her father had several wives. She also had at least two husbands, Her Indian name is reported to have been Kakiisilma, by Miss E.L. Denny. It is also said to have been Wewik. One of Seattle's wives is recorded in Catholic Church baptisms as Hewyik. Some white person called her Angeline; she accepted it, and the name thereafter became fixed, entirely displacing the original name, which was lost to the general public.
Photograph taken not long before her death.
Handwritten on photo: At this place and in this "Old Man House" Seattle lived and ruled, and Angeline and his other children probably were born. Seattle died here, Angeline lived here later years in the town of Seattle.
Handwritten on photo: This house is said to have been 520 feet long, 60 feet wide, 15 feet high in front and 10 feet high in rear.
Handwritten on photo: No spot in this beautiful city of the dead is more sightly, more sought and more remarked.
Handwritten on photo: Indian canoe sailing up Puget Sound, while loaded sail ship is towed by steamer down Sound.
Seated on beach with three twined baskets; perhaps taken at West Seattle.
Handwritten on photo: He makes canoes and she makes baskets to sell to white people on the beach at West Seattle.
Handwritten on photo: The only commercial resource of these people seems to be fish.
Ozette village near Cape Alava; remains of ship Austria, wrecked in 1887, in foreground.
Cannonball Island, Ozette village, near Cape Alava; remains of ship Austria wrecked in 1887.
Handwritten on photo: The whale hunter's story.
Handwritten on photo: This native son knows enough good fish stories to fill a book
Handwritten on photo: Posing for a picture on the ocean coast of Washington
Handwritten on photo: Afloat on the Pacific; looking for seals, whales, halibut.
Handwritten on photo: Fishing is a partnership or family matter on Puget Sound; he catches, she cleans, she sells, he takes the money.
Handwritten on photo: Real old settlers. Typical Indian habitations.
Handwritten on photo: A well known Puget Sounder.
Handwritten on photo: Sand fleas.
Handwritten on photo: Fair specimens of the present Generation.
Handwritten on photo: Temporary Sojourners in Seattle in the 1880s.
Home of "Indian Charley."
Handwritten on photo: Camps of British Columbia Indians in 1880
Handwritten on photo: Camps of British Columbia Indians in 1880.
Handwritten on photo: Camps of British Columbia Indians in 1880.
Lived at Lake Sammamish.
Handwritten on photo: A proud Puget Sound mother and her exuberant, hilarious young one.
Handwritten on photo: "Wahoolit," or "Yelm Jim," a Nisqually Indian. He fought with Leschi in 1855-56. He killed Sluggia, Leschi's betrayer. Sentenced to be hung he was pardoned on the day set for execution.
Handwritten on photo: Old Betty and her blind son-to be seen in Olympia any day. She leads him with a stick, using the other as cane for herself.
Same mother and son as previous image.
Handwritten on photo: After standing for the picture taker, the bent-over old Indian woman and her unfortunate son moved on up the Olympia street to their humble place of abode.
Handwritten on photo: Three generations: Grandmother, father and mother, two little ones. These are Puget Sound Indians.
Handwritten on photo: This represents a comfortable, well-to-do, half civilized family of Puget Sound Indians. Few Indian families are there with five living children.
Handwritten on photo: An old-style burial place, on Puget Sound. Such places were common in the 1860s. Another manner was to place the body in a small canoe, and then hoist and hide the same in the branches of a tree. The present day Indian buries his dead the manner of his white neighbors.
Handwritten on photo: The man (and father) is giving his boys lessons in the arts of fishing and navigation. They are eager students. Soon they will be experts in both lines.
Handwritten on photo: No explanation of this scene is required.
Handwritten on photo: After a day in town these old Indians are on the Colman wharf, waiting for the steamer to take them back to Eagle Harbor.
Left to right: Doctor Peter, Charlie Yukon, Mrs. Chief Jacob, Chief Jacob Wahalchu, unknown, Mary Adams.
Handwritten on photo: Indian women exhibiting and offering for sale their skin, bead and other fancy work articles. These Indians are from the north of Washington [probably Tlingit].
Handwritten on photo: The women here appear to be doing the work and attending to the business. The men are at the saloon, maybe, the sign of which shows.
Handwritten on photo: Here are more women at work. They have their rolls of matting and other articles for sale. They are not pleased at or with the photographer.
Handwritten on photo: North Pacific Coast Indians: women and girls.
Handwritten on photo: North Pacific Coast Indians: women and girls.
One wears beaded mukluks, another plays the violin.
Handwritten on photo: A native of the coast.