The photo of Stephen Pharoah widely known as "Stephen Talkhouse" and unfortunately acclaimed by P.T. Barnum as  "The Last of Montauks" because he was not either is placed on this website to present a perspective of what, who and why may have influenced and motivated Tooker with respect to his approach and style of photography. The two photographs, taken in 1867, of a father and his son, are very early photos of  members of the Montauketts. In 1867 Talkhouse was 48 years old and Tooker was 20 but apparently acquainted as referenced in Tooker's 1901 Indian artifacts catalog indicating Talkhouse was collecting artifacts for him at that time. (See actual catalog section below). The catalog line item dates reveal Tooker was active in collecting and researching all of eastern Long Island with one 1865 Bridgehampton notation and another artifact contributor, Jonathan Gould, in Montauk, in 1857. The point is that Tooker was "out in the field" so to speak with the Montauketts and probably knew most of them.

Because of Tooker's knowledge of the Algonquin people and close relationship with the Montauketts he may have realized he was living with history. When one gazes closely at the Stephen "Talkhouse" photo it's like looking at a ancient death mask or a phantom image from antiquity. Along with Slyvester Pharoahs portrait their faces represent the communal face of a dying indigenous culture.  As commonly perceived the camera was a mysterious and spirit-taking machine of the white people and probably not welcome among the Montauketts. Tooker was aware of this uncomfortable feeling and out of mutual respect and trust he was not willing to impose on the relationship just for photograph. I would suggest he wanted to but would and did not.

Tooker wrote about his visits to Fort Hill, a famous Montaukett site and burial ground, in the 1880's  however, he did not photograph the Indian burial stones until his last trip on July 15, 1898. The only other photograph referring to the Montaukett culture is of him posing in front of Split Rock a meeting place and milestone marker on a path in Hither Woods circa 1898. I suggest that Tooker may have felt that the 1898 trip to Montauk would be the last opportunity to photograph the sites as the servere pain he endured in daily life would probably worsen. He waited all those years to take the site photographs. It's important to note here that to my knowledge no early photos of the Montaukettes exist by any photographer.

The Big Apple Moves to The Harbor

In 1879 when Talkhouse died alone on a Indian trail in Montauk at age 60 Tooker was 32 years-old, married and owned a pharmacy business. It is referenced at that time there were but a handful of local pure blood Montaukett Indians and that the culture, people and language were fading fast as a result of disease, corruption, prejudice and European expansion.  Around 1880-1882 after many years of  involvement and association with the Montauketts Tooker may have realized that his own culture and community was rapidly changing and shortly would be gone as well.

Tooker's life period (1847-1917) was a remarkable transformational period in the American experiment. Tooker started as a kid fascinated and absorbed with Indian culture but he would eventually witness the final dying days of this great indigenous group knowing the last few people. As a young man he visited their Montauk villages and dwellings and before he died they barely existed as a community with no real homeland. He saw the great windmills that supplied and nourished South Fork communities change from wind power to steam power. He saw some rot away because they were no longer efficient and useful. The newspapers and magazines he read were filling up with photographs to help tell a story not just illustrations and drawings. He saw the huge whaling ships disappear from the harbor and steam ships filling the piers. He grew up using the horse and buggy but witnessed the  gradually transistion to the automobile. He saw artists using photographs to help them paint and more people becoming photographers. He saw more buildings being occupied by more people moving to the South Fork. He saw and heard the great train move eastward to barren Montauk.  He said good bye to the old timers maybe some who bought in the American revolution. He saw the old pre-American Revolution settlement homes deteriorate and fall down. When he was a teenager the Civil War was going on and when he sold his business at age 51 the Spanish-American War was in the news. He photographed the Rough Riders in Montauk. He saw the shore whaling and beached whale harvesting activties being few and part apart. He witnessed the face of the great Montaukett nation dissolve into aghostly shadow. He saw the "big" world moving to" the Harbor." In view of all this, I think perhaps most importantly and possibly a key motivator, as a historian, archivist, researcher and writer he saw no organized photographic documents of the great places, buildings, settlement houses and windmills. When they were gone the landscape would change and society as he knew it would be gone forever. This was Tooker's world. Thinking about and recording history. With the camera he could document antiquity for future historians and he set out with a plan.

What he did photograph

As the Montaukettes, derived from ancient cultures, were disappearing Tooker recognized that the windmills, the technological wonders of the new world, derived from English design and craftsmanship, would also soon be gone. To memorialize this structures for future generations he knew the camera  was the device to use and he was the person to do it. In the late 1880s he photographed  all the east end windmills with a larger 6 x 8 camera. As some of dated images tell us the older houses was also a  planned documentary venture. (See Image Descriptions). There is also the thought that Tooker's family heritage was English and perhaps he wanted to document the English influence on the new world.

Many of the windmill and house photographs are full frame compositions as opposed to images  existing in a pleasant landscape setting. He did not want to leave any information or detail out of the record document. This gives the viewer as sense of presence with the capability and opportunity to study the subject without distractions. (Discussion on Beached Whale photo is forthcoming).

A Final Ponderance 

It may well be our fortune that William Wallace Tooker never went to Yale. His dedication to his life's passions and personal beliefs left us and the world at large an invaluable body of knowledge and irreplaceable photographic images. His life story of  contributions have a comfortable and rewarding place in American history.

He was a prominent figure on the front lines of intelligently recording early American life. An unequivocal link and voice to the indigenous cultures that would have less recognition and understanding if not for Tooker.  I selfishly wish he would taken pictures of the Montauketts and Shinnecocks but in the same breath I appreciate, admire and respect Tooker for not doing so.   

As Herman Melville wrote in Moby Dick in 1851 " It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all." There are many definitions for the camera but what it really does is instantly grasp or better yet snatch those phantoms out of real life and memorialize them forever. Whatever  influenced and encouraged Tooker to pick up the camera and record those images is greatly appreciated.

William Wallace Tooker, the metaphysical man, of Paumanack.

Photo Credit Notes . As referenced in Paula Fleming's book on the Shindler Catalogue of National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution the photos were taken for Eliza Latham by either J. Warner of Sag Harbor or J.W. Powell of Southampton. These are copies of the original print and may have copyright protection. Contact National Anthropological Archives .

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