Lost Photo Of Crook's Scout Discovered?

An unseen stereoview by John Campbell Burge opens up the discussion.

- Jeremy Rowe

John Campbell Burge is one of my favorite Territorial Arizona photographers. Though his work is less common than other early Arizona photographers, Burge had a fine touch with his stereoviews, capturing motion and the personality of his subjects, and creating aesthetically pleasing scenic images.

This is a brief story about a stereoview by Burge that I’d never seen before.

The “New” Burge Stereoview

Burge was an itinerant photographer. His first studio was the Phoenix Gallery on Montezuma Street in Prescott, which he operation opened in April 1881. He moved his briefly to Phoenix that summer, before returning to Prescott that fall.

In early 1882, he moved his studio to Globe and traveled throughout eastern Arizona to the mining communities and the San Carlos reservation.

In 1885, he moved to Flagstaff and formed a partnership with James Hildreth. Burge made images of northern Arizona for several years before moving east—first to Kingston, at the end of the 1880s, then on to El Paso, Texas, in the 1890s.

The image of his I’d never seen before was on a yellow Burge mount, and it depicted a camp scene of six individuals, in front of a lean-to under the shade of a large cottonwood tree, with a seventh figure in front of a tent at the rear.