An Unexpected Find: Self-Representation in Nineteenth-Century Portrait Photographs of Canadian Lenape

abstract:Seven photographs discovered in the Moravian Archives show inhabitants of Moraviantown, Ontario, six Lenape and one European. The photographs were taken in the second half of the nineteenth century, at an early stage of the development of photography. The research about the sitters in the photographs and the particular story of these pictures has brought to light details about the relationship between indigenous and missionary inhabitants of the village. In order to discuss the function of the photographs for the portrayed, for the people who gave them away as gifts, those who received them, and finally those who collected them, we need to look at the context of photographic self-representation of indigenous peoples in North America during the nineteenth century. Contextualizing the photographs means to go through the layers of meanings and interpretations these images underwent in the course of their existence. In looking at them we can learn more about the colonial perception of indigenous people, photographic images, and how the colonial perception has influenced our view on history. The stories of these photographs support the hypothesis that Lenape people used a wide array of strategies to ensure their survival, despite limitations forced upon them by the colonists.