[NATIVE AMERICANS]. BURGE, J.C. (ca 1839-1897), photographer. Scouts, San Carlos, AT. Early 1880s. 

6 3/4 x 3 3/8 in. stereoview on cardstock mount (toning, some soiling, occasional spotting; corner/edge wear to, light vertical crease through mount). Recto with manuscript title in lower margin, verso with J.C. Burge's imprint and series title, "Views of Arizona Scenery and the Apache Indians in their Native Wilds." 

An outdoor view of a group of approx. 30 Apache Scouts posed with rifles in hand. 

J.C. Burge was first documented as a photographer in Arizona in April 1881, working as an operator at the Phoenix Gallery until moving to Prescott later that month. Over the following year, Burge worked as a traveling photographer in both Phoenix and Prescott before officially moving his studio to Prescott near the end of 1881. During that time, Burge produced stereoviews of Prescott, adjacent Fort Whipple, the Vulture Mine, and works in the Bradshaw Mountains. Two months after moving to Prescott, Burge again relocated his photographic business to Globe, where he produced images of the area including mining communities and the San Carlos Apache reservation. 

By 1884, Burge and a new partner, itinerant photographer James Hildreth from Utah, ventured to Flagstaff, opening a gallery in "New Town" in June of 1884. Hildreth and Burge separated soon after. Burge also formed a temporary partnership with New Mexico photographer Ben Wittick. Together, Burge and Wittick traveled to the land of the Hopi, where they photographed the Hopi ("Moqui") snake dance. They then sold views of Arizona and New Mexico at a temporary gallery in Flagstaff in 1885. Burge moved on to the mining town of Kingston, New Mexico in 1885, operating galleries in New Mexico and Texas over the next twelve years. (Information obtained from "The origins of J.C. Burge, early Arizona Territory photographer," by Jeremy Rowe, Arizona Origins post, 22 May 2022.)