Charles Howard (photographer) - Fort Bridger

Fort Bridger

Photographers had been passing through this frontier military post since almost the inception of the art form. Daguerreotypist John Wesley Jones visited the garrison in 1851 and Samuel C. Mills, traveling with the Army bound for Utah, produced at least one image of Fort Bridger in 1858. Salt Lake City photographer Charles W. Carter came during the winter of 1866–67 and his former mentor, Charles Savage, visited a number of times between 1866 and the early 1870s. The noted Union Pacific Railroad photographer Andrew J. Russell also stopped here in 1869. Census records show a photographer named Simeon Pierson at the post in 1870. Fort Bridger had a long tradition of photographers at the post.

It is not know if Private Howard had previously trained as a photographer or if he acquired his skills after arriving at Fort Bridger, but by the summer of 1876, he was actively producing photographs of the post and the surrounding area. He created landscape views of the Black River Valley and of nearby Church Buttes in the Green River badlands, as well as views of the fort itself. He also produced portraits. Captain William H. Bisbee, Fourth Infantry, sent a payment for photographs of his child to Howard through the post trader at Fort Bridger, complaining that "they are not at all good." Two tintypes, bearing the name "C. Howard, Artistic Photographer, Fort Bridger, Wy. Ty." have survived, examples of this soldier-photographer's portraiture work.

Life for Private Howard at Fort Bridger was probably typical of the experience of most soldiers stationed at frontier posts. Private Howard's duty with the regimental band however did afford him a few privileges and an occasional opportunity to travel off the garrison. In July 1876, for example, he and other bandsmen were invited to Ogden, Utah Territory, to perform at the town's centennial celebration. Private Howard was then granted three days leave in Salt Lake City. Here he could have obtained additional photography supplies at establishments such as the Art Bazaar, the studio of the noted photographer Charles Savage, before returning to Fort Bridger.

Examples of Howard's Photographs From Fort Bridger, c. 1875–77

• "Black Fork Valley at Fort Bridger." Brigham Young University.
• Officers' Quarters, Fort Bridger. American Heritage Center.
• Portrait of Nelson Carter, Carter Collection, Wyoming State Archives.
• Portrait of Edgar Carter, Carter Collection, Wyoming State Archives.
• Unidentified Indian outside Judge Carter's Store, Fort Bridger. Private Collection.

Examples of Photos by Other Photographers and Reprinted by Howard

• Unidentified Apache. Original image taken on Wheeler Expedition, 1872; reprinted by Charles Howard, Fort Bridger. Cowan Auctions, June 2007.