"a Very Correct Idea of Our School": A Photographic History of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School - Paperback

Photographic Documentation of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School

This 166-page paperback presents a comprehensive visual record of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which operated from 1879 to 1918 as the first federally-managed off-reservation boarding school for Native Americans in the United States. Author Kate Theimer, a Project Partner of the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center, draws on archival photographs to trace the institution's complex history.

Historical Context and Photographic Analysis

The book examines how photography served as a tool to document and promote the school's assimilation process, transforming Native American children and young adults into what administrators considered "civilized" members of mainstream white American society. These images were originally used for fundraising, branding, and sharing perceived progress with the wider world.

Contemporary viewers now examine these same photographs through a different lens, with greater understanding of what Carlisle represented to diverse audiences. The photographic record captures a narrow perspective on student life while revealing the deeper implications of government assimilation policy.

Award-Winning Scholarship

Winner of the Custer Memorial Award 2019, this volume combines the latest scholarship with rich visual documentation. The book explores how photography informed cultural understanding during the school's operation and indicates the lasting legacy for students, their descendants, and American culture today.