Photographs of the Old West

Frederick Monsen's ethnographic photos of the American West

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In his Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (2012), John Koenig first coined the word sonder as:

sonder

n. the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness — an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

Experiencing sonder is akin to experiencing what the Romantics called the sublime — a spontaneous, transcendent feeling of awe, with other people fulfilling the role normally played by nature. Ordinarily, we might associate the sensation with passing strangers on the street, but recently I’ve been experiencing it most intensely when looking at old photographs.

Which brings me to the work of a little-known photographer, Frederick Monsen.

Monsen was born in Bergen, Norway, in 1865, but emigrated with his parents to Utah Territory when he was only three. He grew up in the West during the time for which it is most famous, when it was adventurous, wild, and still dangerous. As a teenager, Monsen became fascinated with the new art form of his day, photography, and was soon accompanying land surveys as an informal tagalong, helping shoot the landscape and its inhabitants. Soon it became a full time vocation and he joined expeditions heading to Alaska, Yukon, and Central America. But the area that became his speciality was the American Southwest; he was drawn back to its deserts, mesas, and canyons again and again over the course of his life.

Over the course of those decades, Monsen became deeply fascinated with the Native Americans of that region, eventually joining a group of other photographers (together known as the ‘Pasadena Eight’) in documenting their way of life before it was changed irrevocably. Fortunately, by the time Monsen began his ethnographic project, which spanned the years 1886-1911, Kodak had developed a handheld box camera as well as roll and cartridge film, making it easier than ever before to be spontaneous in shooting film. Hence, the Norwegian-American was able to capture his subjects in more natural, candid moments, contrasting the more typical stiff and staged shots that were common at the time.

Across Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico, Monsen documented the people and landscapes of the land he loved most. He captured his subjects, whether Navajo, Tigua, Apache, Hopi, Zuni, surveyors, prospectors, Mormons, missionaries, pioneers, or fortune seekers, with a degree of pathos that’s rare from that era of photography.

As you look through his images below, you may find yourself realising that all of those faces once belonged to people whose lives were as rich and varied as your own. It may occur to you that nothing besides remains of their stories, except perhaps these images and Monsen’s scrawled captions. Who were they? What were their hopes and dreams? Did they live full, happy lives? We can only guess.

(All photographs in this post are courtesy of Huntington Library, unless stated otherwise.)¹

The magnificent walls of the Canyon de Chelly, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

Hopiland, Arizona. The Hopi live on the crests of three great mesas which project into the Painted Desert like the fingers of a giant hand (c. 1886 — 1911).

Paiute Indians, Nevada (1890).

Hopiland. Arizona. Hopi boys playing on the very edge of the mesa where a misstep would mean a fall of several hundred feet to the rocks below (c. 1886 — 1911).

Playing a Lone Hand. Crossing the Arizona Desert near Colorado River. Pioneers of 1886.

Figures on rocks with shelter (c. 1887-1906). Getty Museum.

Hopi girl standing in a doorway of an adobe building, with a dog at her feet (c. 1886 — 1911).

Clouds in Hopiland, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

The old Mormon Pioneer trail from Salt Lake City to San Bernardino (1891).

Hopiland, Arizona. On the crest of the precipitous mesa the Hopi towns look as if they were part of the living rock (c. 1886 — 1911).

Navajo woman grieving over the death of her husband, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

New Mexico, Mesa Encantada (c. 1886 — 1911).

Hosteen Nezha, Navajo athlete and runner at Chinle. Considered fastest runner in the tribe. (c. 1894-1906). Getty Museum.

Colorado River, Arizona. Marble Canyon. Photograph made on the Brown-Stanton survey in 1889.

Laguna pueblo, New Mexico (c. 1886 — 1911).

Arizona. The Canyon de Chelly and Del Muerto Region is the most interesting prehistoric locality in the Southwest (c. 1886 — 1911).

Arizona. Canyon de Chelly. The wonderful Casa Blanca ruin showing the beetling cliff under which it is located (c. 1886 — 1911).

Painted Desert, Northeastern Arizona (1906).

Monument Canyon in Northeastern Arizona, (c. 1886 — 1911).

The magnificent Canyon Del Muerto, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

A Navajo home (Hogan) on the Chinle desert (c. 1886 — 1911).

Mojave Indians. California. The photograph was made on the Rio Colorado near the Needles, where in 1911, a number of Mojave Indians were encamped. (1911)

Catalina Mountains, Arizona. Stronghold of the Apache Indians. Giant cactus (Sahuaro) and other desert growths (c. 1886 — 1911).

Snake Dance of the Hopi Indians at Oraibi, Third Mesa, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

Death Valley, Inyo County, Calif. Telescope Peak, 10,480 elevation (c. 1886 — 1911).

Sho-kun-yo-ma, Snake Priest. Oldest participant in the Dance (c. 1886 — 1911).

Two little Hopi boys in a pueblo, one holding bow and arrows (c. 1886 — 1911).

On the old Mormon trail from Salt Lake City to the Mormon settlements in Arizona and Chihuahua, Mexico (c. 1886 — 1911).

The Corn Scramble after the Snake Race, Pueblo of Oraibi, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

Petrified Forest, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

View of two human skeletons in Canyon del Muerto, Arizona (c. 1906).

A Pioneer crossing the desert, Mojave, California (1895).

Blue Canyon, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

Taos, a Tigua pueblo consisting of two house groups on both sides of the little Taos river. (c. 1886 — 1911)

Two Mexican men panning for gold in the Picacho region of the Colorado River (1890).

Naked Native American child sitting on cliff edge (c. 1894-1906). Getty Museum.

Excavating in a prehistoric Indian burial ground. Citadel ruin on hill in background. Painted Desert, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

Colorado River, Arizona. The gorge from Pima Point looking across to the North rim (c. 1886 — 1911).

Watching the Snake Race at Oraibi (c. 1886 — 1911).

Pioneers crossing the Little Colorado in Arizona (1885).

Invocation (c. 1886 — 1911).

Mission San Xavier del Bac, Tucson, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

A man with his burro carrying gold prospecting equipment (c. 1886 — 1911).

Hopi Belt Weaver. The Hopi men are the weavers and dress makers. Oraibi, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

Pioneers making their way to California in 1886. Arizona. (c. 1886 — 1911)

Two little girls from the Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico (c. 1886 — 1911).

The Citadel, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

The Colorado River from Desert View. Early morning. Arizona (c. 1886 — 1911).

The Pioneer Stage, Nevada (1887).

Acoma from the top of the old church (c. 1886 — 1911).

The Sand Trail to Acoma (c. 1886 — 1911).

1. Sadly, Monsen lost more than 10,000 negatives and prints — the majority of his life’s work — to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He was able to salvage only a few hundred, which are now housed in the Huntington Library. They’re not on display, but you can find the full archive here.