SACRED STONE, FATED PHOTOGRAPHER
Englishman William Illingworth, whose stereoscopic images of Pipestone’s waterfalls, cliffs and quarries fueled public interest in the region, was driven by a love for the scenic outdoors. Born in Leeds on Sept. 20, 1842, Illingworth had settled with his family in St. Paul, Minn., by 1850. As a young man he moved first to Chicago and then Philadelphia to study photography, returning to St. Paul in 1863 to open a studio. By 1866 he was married with a young son and making a good living as a portrait photographer. But he was always looking for new opportunities.
The public had become enthralled with stereoscopic views of scenery and daily life, so that year Illingworth partnered with George Bill to take 30 stereographs of Captain James Liberty Fisk’s fourth wagon train from St. Cloud, Minn., to the Montana Territory goldfields. Unable to afford to publish the views themselves, they sold the negatives to John Carbutt, who took credit for the photos. It was a portent for Illingworth, who had financial trouble most of his life, was widowed twice and divorced once.
In the early 1870s, while taking stereoscopic views of the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Illingworth may have met Lt. Col. George Custer and other members of the 7th Cavalry, which had been assigned to protect the surveyors and work crews. In 1874 Captain William Ludlow, chief engineer of the military Department of Dakota, signed on Illingworth as a teamster, but his real job was to take stereoscopic views of Custer’s Black Hills Expedition, and he made 70 wet plate negatives. “Our photographer has obtained a complete set of magnificent stereoscopic views of Black Hills scenery,” Custer wrote wife Libbie from the field. Illingworth’s best-known photo is of Custer, scout Bloody Knife, orderly Private John Noonan and Ludlow posing with a grizzly bear Custer shot in the Black Hills. Illingworth, wrote St. Paul Daily Press reporter Fred Power, “has had the good fortune not only to get some good pictures but also to prove himself to be one of the best shots on the expedition, which is considerable.”
After the Black Hills Expedition, Illingworth continued to photograph scenic vistas (many of them in Minnesota), pioneers and Indians. After the divorce from his third wife in 1888, his business and health declined and his alcohol intake increased. On March 16, 1893, he ended his life with a shot to the head from his hunting rifle. Fortunately, much of his work survives. The South Dakota Historical Society acquired the Black Hills Expedition negatives, while the Minnesota Historical Society has a wide variety of his images. —B.M.