Charles Milton Bell

Charles Milton Bell (April 3, 1848 – May 12, 1893) was an American photographer who was noted for his portraits of Native Americans and other figures of the United States in the late 1800s. He was called "one of Washington's leading portrait photographers during the last quarter of the nineteenth century" by the Library of Congress.[1]

Charles Milton Bell
Image of Bell from his own studio
BornApril 3, 1848
Fredericksburg, Virginia, U.S.
DiedMay 12, 1893 (1893-05-13) (aged 45)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting placeOak Hill Cemetery
Washington, D.C., U.S.
38.913575, -77.058380
NationalityAmerican
Other namesC.M. Bell
Known forPhotography
SpouseAnnie Colley
ChildrenCharles Milton Bell, Jr.
Colley Wood Bell
Websitecmbellstudio.com

Bell was the youngest member of a photographer family who had a studio in Washington, D.C. in the 1860s and 1870s. He took over the family studio Bell & Brothers and started his own studio, C. M. Bell, in 1873.[2] Bell worked with Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, who sent visiting Native Americans to Bell's studio to have their portraits made. Bell also made photographs of Native Americans for the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of American Ethnology, where he assisted in-house photographers.[3]

Personal life

Bell was married to Annie Colley[4] and they had two children, Charles Milton Bell and Colley Wood Bell.[5] He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[4]

Legacy

After Bell's death in 1893, his wife continued to operate the studio with her sons. It was sold in the early 1900s to Atha and Cunningham who retained the original name. The negatives were sold to I. M. Boyce, who sold the Native American images to the Bureau of American Ethnology and most of the remainder to Alexander Graham Bell.[6] From there they would up owned by the American Genetic Association who donated them to the Library of Congress. The C. M. Bell Studio Collection held at the Library of Congress 30,000 glass negatives from 1873 to 1916 created by the studio and its successors.[1]

Example works
Year Subject Image Dimensions Collection Comments
1879, JanuaryChief Yellow Bull of the Nez PerceHood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
1882Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886), 21st President of the United States (1881–1885)Film negative, B&WLibrary of Congress, Washington, D.C.Digital ID cph 3a53294
1886Frances Cleveland (1864–1947), First Lady of the United States for two non-conseculative terms (1886–1889; 1893–1897)Cropped from an albumen print cabinet card; Image has been restoredNational Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.|NPG.2007.292
1890-1893Helen Adams Keller (1880–1968)Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MassachusettsCollodion print on card
1893Omaha Chief14 × 12 in. (35.6 × 30.5 cm.)Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.Albumen silver print

References
  1. "C. M. Bell Collection (Prints and Photographs Reading Room, Library of Congress)". Home | Library of Congress. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  2. Hannavy, John (2008). Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography. New York: Routledge. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-415-97235-2. OCLC 123968757.
  3. "Charles Milton Bell photographs of American Indians · SOVA". SOVA. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  4. "Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, D.C. (Stewart) - Lot 626 East" (PDF). oakhillcemeterydc.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 14, 2022. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
  5. "COLLEY WOOD BELL, LAWYER, DIES AT 75". The New York Times. July 2, 1962. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 18, 2023.
  6. Collins, Kathleen (1989). Washingtoniana : photographs : collections in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Washington DC: Library of Congress. pp. 14–22. ISBN 0844405884. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
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