New Online: Public Gets Digital Access to Little Bighorn Battlefield Collections

From the Billings Gazette:

A new digital archive [from the Natoonal Park Service] will allow the public to view historic images in the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument museum and archival collections.
…the public will have the opportunity to view, search, and download more than 1,000 images from park collections. The photographs include 19th century images from the Custer Collection, Bowen Collection, 7th Cavalry Collection, Marquis Collection, Camp Collection, and more. The NPGallery platform will allow the park to continue to add materials, both images and text, to the archive as time and funding allow.

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From the Digital Collection’s “About” Page:

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument preserves in perpetuity the natural and cultural resources of the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought June 25 and 26, 1876, between 12 companies of the 7th US Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, including Arikara and Crow Indian scouts and attached civilian personnel; and allied Lakota Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahos encamped along the Little Bighorn River and under the spiritual leadership of Tatanka-Iyotanka (Sitting Bull) and other Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne leaders.
Custer National Cemetery, in the northern parcel of Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, memorializes and commemorates casualties and veterans of the Indian Wars (including US Indian scouts and Buffalo Soldiers), the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the war in Vietnam.
The Monument’s collections document historic human activity surrounding the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the broader issue of cultural conflict between Euro-American and Native American peoples, and the history and specific interments in the Custer National Cemetery. The collection encompasses five broad areas:

• The archeological holdings include ammunition such as cartridges and bullets, soldier’s equipment, horse bones, and horse-related equipment.
• The history collection primarily pertains to the Indian Wars era and contains materials such as military uniforms, personal accoutrements, and weapons.
• There is a large archival collection of historic photographs, administrative records, oral histories, manuscripts, correspondence, artwork, and maps.
• The ethnology collection contains Native American items, personal effects and tools from the historically associated tribes of the battle.
• The small natural history collection includes a herbarium, fish, and a small mammal collection.

The digital collection shared through NP Gallery is only a sampling of the larger collection. Currently the gallery contains a selection of photographs from the Monument’s 19th century historical photographic collection. Additional collections will be added in the future.

Direct to New Digital Collection

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