Born in England in 1842, William Henry Illingworth was operating a photography studio in
St. Paul, Minnesota, by the time of the Black Hills Expedition in 1874. He had already
traveled widely as a photographer for the Fisk Expedition to the Montana gold fields
(in 1866) and with railroad construction crews (1870-73). He published several series of
stereoviews or “stereographs” that are still important artifacts of the developing West.
Illingworth contracted with Capt. William Ludlow, Custer’s chief engineer, to join them as
the expedition’s photographer in 1874. The Army provided him with camera, lenses
and other equipment plus a “dark wagon” to carry everything. It was in this wagon that
Illingworth processed some of the first photographs ever taken of the mysterious Black Hills.
Which was no easy task for a “wet plate” photographer of the time. Illingworth
sometimes carried his bulky camera and tripod to lofty and precarious heights, but that was just
the beginning. Once he was satisfied with a composition, he went to his wagon or a portable
tent to coat a glass plate with chemicals. He carried the still-wet plate to his camera, inserted it, and uncovered
the lens to make his exposure. The plate would then have to be developed quickly, before the chemicals dried.
Illingworth repeated this procedure more than 70 times during the expedition, transporting the glass plates
across hundreds of roadless miles in his wagon.
Most of the views were taken with a camera like the one at left, which produced two slightly different images
side by side — just as our eyes see the world. Even today, viewing the photographs through a stereopticon
produces a startling three-dimensional sensation of depth and detail. You feel as if you’re looking down upon
the camp yourself, or seeing the Black Hills just as the first white visitors did in 1874.
Illingworth continued his career in St. Paul after the expedition, but the popularity of stereographs began to decline in the 1880s. After he and his third wife were divorced in 1888, Illingworth found himself alone, alcoholic and in failing health. He shot himself with his favorite hunting rifle on March 16, 1893.
But he left a legacy of more than 1,600 negatives of the West and Midwest. Illingworth’s son later sold
the collection to a man named Bromley, who offered the Black Hills views to the
South Dakota State Historical Society
for $60 in 1919. (It took almost a year for the money to be appropriated.) Thanks to Illingworth,
we still know today the exact boundaries of several 1874 camps, and just how they were laid out. We know the
condition of the forests through which the expedition traveled. We know what many of the men looked like and where they
hung their laundry to dry. And we know the very rocks
on which Custer displayed his grizzly bear. These are just a few of the intriguing details revealed
in the book Exploring with Custer.
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Adapted from Exploring with Custer © 2002 Dakota Photographic LLC