Thanks to a unique collaboration between Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group and The Center for Western Studies of Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., photographs taken more than 100 years ago have come to life in a new photo book. Impressions of Tribal Life was produced on a Kodak Nexpress S3000 Digital Production Colour Press.
Impressions of Tribal Life compiles photographs taken by Father Ambrose Mattingly, OSB, who came to the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota in August 1888 as a priest with Immaculate Conception Indian Mission at Stephan. Among his many skills as a painter, carpenter, plumber, farmer, teacher and doctor, Father Ambrose also pursued photography from 1895 to 1905, capturing images that reveal a great deal about life on the reservation.
The photo book features digital scans of glass plate images that have been enhanced by combining them with Native American artifacts to add color and texture. The U.S. Geological Survey office provided the scans, while the artifacts come from the personal collection of Kodak executive Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, who initiated the project.
“This collaboration with Kodak allows us to showcase these historic photos and tell our stories to a wider audience through this publication,” said Harry F. Thompson, Ph.D., Director of Research Collections and Publications at The Center for Western Studies. “As a book publisher, I appreciate the Nexpress Press’s capabilities to help us share the resources we have on Native American life in the Northern Plains.”
Impressions of Tribal Life, which was shown at Kodak’s booth during Graph Expo, will be available at The Center for Western Studies of Augustana College in January and February 2008, in conjunction with a gallery exhibition of Father Ambrose’s framed photographs. Kodak will continue to print books for The Center for Western Studies at the company’s demonstration center in Rochester.
“Impressions of Tribal Life brings the remarkable photography of Father Ambrose to public consciousness after more than a century,” said Hayzlett, Chief Business Development Officer and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. “It also demonstrates the opportunities for producing short run, high quality color photo books with a Nexpress Press. We are proud to be part of this exciting project.”
Father Ambrose kept records of his experiences in South Dakota, and makes specific reference to Kodak in one of his journal entries. He used a buggy drawn by two ponies, Pat and Buck, to travel as a missionary and to take photos on reservations including Lower Brule, Yankton, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock. One day, while trying to forge a flooded stream, Father Ambrose’s buggy stuck fast on a frozen drift. Undaunted, he climbed into the water to unhitch the team and free the buggy. Later, he wrote of this incident, “If gratitude is a virtue, them I claim the pennant for the practice of that virtue. For I was, I am, and ever shall be profoundly grateful that no one with a Kodak camera was on the scene.”
About The Center for Western Studies
A repository for more than 200 archival collections, The Center for Western Studies maintains a library in excess of 35,000 volumes on the American West. The Center is also the largest academic publisher in South Dakota, with more than 70 publications to its credit. Located on the campus of Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD, The Center preserves and interprets the history and cultures of the northern plains states, including South Dakota, North Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming.
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