David Rodocker. Photographer; active Champaign, Illinois

Champaign, Illinois

Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...

, 1860s; Winfield, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, 1871–1919; traveling through Black Hills, 1877.

Early years

Born in Ashland County, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, in 1840, David Rodocker opened his first photography studio in Champaign, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. He moved to Winfield, Kansas

Winfield, Kansas

Winfield is a city situated along the Walnut River in the west-central part of Cowley County, located in South Central Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,301...

, in late 1870 where he opened a studio by the following year.

Black Hills Photography Trip

In January 1877, Rodocker sold his Winfield studio and took his camera on the road to the Black Hills, spending the summer producing views of the mines and mining towns. He departed the Black Hills in October 1877, apparently heading south and passing through the Red Cloud Agency

Red Cloud Agency

The Red Cloud Agency was an Indian agency for the Oglala Lakota as well as the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho, from 1871 to 1878. It was located at three different sites in Wyoming Territory , before being moved to South Dakota. It was then renamed the Pine Ridge Reservation.- Red Cloud Agency No...

 in northwestern Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

 where he produced several additional photographs. He arrived about a month after the death of Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S...

 so he could not have been produced a portrait of the famed Oglala Sioux war leader.

Later years

Rodocker traveled to Chicago where he purchased new equipment and made arrangements with publisher L. M. Melander to market and sell his views. Melander produced a series called "Views of the Black Hills Mining Country and in the Sioux Indian Country", a set of 79 stereoviews.

Rodocker returned to Winfield, Kansas, in November 1877 and reopened his studio. "He brings with him many beautiful stereoscopic views of the mountains, peaks, hills, gulches, claims, camps, and towns in the gold region," the local newspaper reported. "He says he will return to the Hills about next Centennial."

Rodocker did return to the Black Hills briefly in 1880, but continued to operate his Winfield studio. He later worked for the government as a photographer, returning to Winfield in 1894. Rodocker died in 1919 but his wife and daughter continued to operated the studio until 1925.