Lot 148
Cyril Francis Turner (1922-2009)
Lot 148 Details
Cyril Francis Turner (1922-2009)
THE RESEARCH ARCHIVES OF AUTHOR AND AMATEUR PLAINS SCHOLAR C. FRANK TURNER
Comprised primarily of material relating to C. Frank Turner's research on The Northwest Mounted Police and Sitting Bull, particularly focused on Sitting Bull’s years seeking refuge in Canada following The Battle of Little Big Horn.
Four compact cassettes recorded by C. Frank Turner documenting original, and previously unknown recordings of Oglala Lakota elders including Elizabeth "Lizzie" Ogle (Toniya Wakanwin) (1885-1984), and Roy Ogle (b. 1919) of Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan; as well as Ida Killah[?], and George Jacob Kills In Sight (1897-1975) of Rosebud Indian reservation, South Dakota. Interviewees discuss subjects including an oral account relating to the massacre at Wounded Knee, their family members escape to Canada with Sitting Bull, early settlers of Wood Mountain, preservation of Lakota culture and the loss of the traditional language, Lakota war leader Crazy Horse, Chief Spotted Tail, and Iron Tail, The Ghost Dance, and Lakota elder Thomas Tyme[?] (Gives Him Pipe).
A figural catlinite club in the form of a claw hammer, sculpted by the subject of one of Turner's interviews, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Ogle (Toniya Wakanwin) (1885-1984).
161 gelatin silver photographs and thirteen negatives, primarily comprised of 8 x 10 copy prints—some unpublished—from various private and public archives including the Smithsonian Institute: Bureau of American Ethnology, the National Archives, the U.S. Signal Corps Archives, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Archives, the Glenbow Museum, and Public Archives of Canada. Prints are from photographs by important photographers including D.F Barry, Alexander Gardener, Heyn & Matzen, F. Jay Haynes, Charles M. Bell, and George W. Spencer. Images primarily document First Nations Chiefs, and North West Mounted Police officials.
Carousel of slides, accompanied by slide list, and notes for C. Frank Turner presentation "Sitting Bull Tests the Metal of the Redcoats".
Twenty Kodachrome and other colour process snapshot photographs by C. Frank Turner documenting his travels to historical sites while conducting research for Across the Medicine Line.
One folio of original correspondence pertaining to research and editorial matters in preparation for C. Frank Turner's 1973 publication Across the Medicine Line: The Epic Confrontation Between Sitting Bull and the North-West Mounted Police.
Two folios of research and reference material for Across the Medicine Line.
One large sheaf of misc. research paperwork and related articles.
One folio of magazines containing historical subject matter articles by C. Frank Turner.
Carbon copy of 1974 script adapting Across the Medicine Line into a theatrical production, as well as material pertaining to the theatrical optioning of the book.
Two folios of reviews and publicity for Across the Medicine Line.
John Peter Turner, The Northwest Mounted Police 1873-1893 (Ottawa: Edmond Cloutier, King's Printer and Controller of Stationery, 1950). 1st Edition, in two volumes, in the original printed stiff card wraps, well-thumbed and with extensive wear to binding, some losses.
C. Frank Turner, Across the Medicine Line: The Epic Confrontation Between Sitting Bull and The North-West Mounted Police (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1973). Signed by author.
Estimate $3,000-$4,000
Provenance:
C. Frank Turner, Toronto, ON
By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto, ON
Note:
Cyril Francis (C. Frank) Turner was an individual of many talents, and a remarkably varied life. A wartime commando, and flying officer, peacetime militiaman, author, editor, and amateur historian (who could trace his ancestry to 14th century Mawddwy Bandits in Wales), he is perhaps most remembered for authoring the popular 1973 book Across the Medicine Line: The Epic Confrontation Between Sitting Bull and the North-West Mounted Police.
An adventurer with a hands-on approach to the study of history, Turner assembled a collection of historical First Nations objects, and traveled to many of the far flung, and at times dangerous locations covered in his book, interviewing first-hand, and keeping correspondence with descendants of participants in the events. Speaking in 1973 of the urgency of preserving stories, Turner expressed, “The land is still there. So are the descendants, Indians and Whites. It is the heritage that is fading away.”
Waddington’s is pleased to present the research archives, and First Nations collection of Cyril Francis Turner.