WThe New York Public Library  /  Photographers’ Identities Catalog
PIC ID: 2415

Elias Olcott Beaman

American, 1837-1876

Male

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Elias Olcott Beaman was a photographer with the 1871 expedition led by John Wesley Powell to explore and document the Colorado River. Powell had made several previous explorations of western Colorado and eastern Utah under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. This, his second exploration of the Colorado River, was funded by the Department of the Interior. The group included another photographer, J. K. Hillers, and artist F. S. Dellenbaugh. The artists all had double duty, and Beaman, who had been a pilot on the Great Lakes captained the last of the three boats. He was involved only for a first leg of the journey, from May 22, 1871, when the group left Green River, Wyoming, until October 22 when, at the mouth of the Paria River, the group was stopped by rising waters. In his account of the expedition, F. S. Dellenbaugh claimed that Beaman and two others left the party due to ill health, but elsewhere he noted Beaman's "tendency to insubordination and recklessness." Beaman stuck off on his own to Arizona "with one companion [James Carlton], a photographic outfit for about one hundred stereoscopic negatives, and about three months' supply of provisions and a few articles for trade with the Indians." There he travelled among and photographed the Navajos, whom he found to be "peace loving and intelligent beyond any other tribe that I have ever met with." Nonetheless, they did not understand or appreciate his photography and "as it was, I was politely requested to leave their towns." Beaman again accompanied Powell on the expedition in 1872.It was noted that the photographer was in Salt Lake City in October of 1872, and the Wesleyan University Alumni Journal of 1873 wrote: "E. O. Beaman, formerly artist of the Powell Expedition, spent a few days in our city not long since. He was en route for New York City where he will supply the trade with stereoscopic views of the Colorado region and the Moquis Pablos of Arizona. He has views of some of the grandest and most magnificent scenery on the face of the globe, and is probably the only man who has visited and taken photographs of the old Aztec cities of Arizona." Beaman occasionally gave illustrated lectures of his travels, such as one in New York in February, 1874 titled "Life Among the Mormons" with views of Salt Lake City. In April, he published his account of his travels in Appleton's Journal, including an account of an encounter with John D. Lee, a pioneer of Utah and early member of the Latter Day Saints, who would be executed in 1877 for his role in the massacre of some 120 emmigrants crossing Utah in 1857.The Powell Expedition is extensively chronicalled by multiple members of the party. But few details of his life are found before or after this period. He described himself as a photographer in New York before the expedition, though he is not found in directories or newspapers. Dellenbaugh stated that he had been a pilot on the Great Lakes, though no corroborating evidence is found of that. Anthony's Photographic Bulletin of November, 1873 mentions that he "has this summer been working in the Adirondacks." Only a few mentions are found of his illustrated lectures, so he must not have been prolific as a lecturer. In Appleton's Journal he remarks of the Ouribay Gardens, "which greatly resemble the hill-sides of Genoa," so it's possible that he had travelled abroad. A published genealogy of the family states that he was one of nine children born in Chateaugay, New York, and died unmarried in Camden, New Jersey on October 15, 1876.

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Elias Olcott Beaman has 6 locations.

Birth (September 13, 1837)

Chateaugay, NY
USA

Active in (1871)

Colorado River, CO
USA

Active in (1871-1872)

AZ
USA

Active in (Summer, 1873)

Adirondack Mountains, NY
USA

Studio or Business (1876)

733 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA
USA

Death (October 15, 1876)

Camden, NJ
USA