The Carlisle Indian School was founded in 1879 by Colonel RH Pratt. His method was to “drive the Indian” out of them. His motto “Kill the Indian, save the man.”
Here’s two photos of Tom Torlino, a Navaho who arrived at Carlisle a few years after it opened. The second photo shows Tom’s transformation. His lighter skin is most likely the intentional product of the photographer’s lighting.
Before and after “contrast” photos were sent to officials in Washington, to potential charitable donors and to other reservations to recruit new students. Pratt’s photographs showing his "quick results" helped persuade Washington that he was doing vital work.
I’ve used Juxtapose JS to create an image slider. You can operate the slider and find more examples here.
Oth the photos and the juxtapose work are Fascinating. Thank you.
I haven't seen these photos, so thanks for sharing! Of course it led me down a rabbit hole.
I followed the Wikipedia source you linked to their source, which led me to the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center out of Dickinson College. - https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/student_records
They have a lot of interesting stuff that's been digitized from the National Archives and local Carlisle archives. The student records linked above have a number of before and after photos from other students, too. Some students were at the school for over 10 years! Each student had a "Student Card" that gives information such as their application to the school, grade entering and leaving, marital status, self-reported surveys of students years after graduation, health records, letters from the student to the superintendent of Carlisle, and so so so much more.
While browsing, I found it interesting that many of the students expressed gratitude in their letters with the superintendent sounding joyful and encouraging in reply. Some of the students went on to marry fellow students from the same and other tribes, and some left and reentered the school years later. Mind you, there are a great many of the students who don't have such positive stories. In one such case, a student, Sarah Delonais wasn't allowed to leave the school and return home on several requests of her sick mother because she was at an Outing School, which was basically just unpaid child labor specifically for European-American families - https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/student_files/sarah-delonais-student-file
I realized a voice I had often left out in this story is the female student's voice. Though many of the women indicated they were married with the occupation of "housewife" or "homemaker", some others went on to become matrons, teachers, and cooks at other Indian boarding schools, housekeepers, seamstresses, and other vocations fit for the time. The boys were taught trades such as farming, mechanics, and sports, among others. For boys and girls alike, they were taught trade skills to be traditional white Americans, and I don't want to imagine how much of that training was behavioral.
I stumbled across Iva Miller's student record, indicating her marriage to Jim Thorpe while at the school - https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/student_files/iva-miller-student-file