3 7/8 x 5 5/8 in. cabinet photograph on cardstock mount (toning, small abrasion to right of subject's head; spotting and some wear to mount edges and corners). Smith's imprint on mount recto. Half portrait of Bourke wearing his military uniform and holding his sword, possibly taken during one of Bourke's late summer trips to attend the American Indian Association meetings in west Massachusetts. 

John Gregory Bourke (1846-1896) served in the US Army, enlisting during the Civil War and receiving a Medal of Honor for gallantry at Stones River. He then attended West Point, from which he graduated in 1869. Thereafter, as an officer in the 3rd US Cavalry and General Crook's aide, Bourke experienced the late Indian Wars and the western landscape up close, writing down his careful observations in diaries and later books about military life and the customs of many of the Native American peoples with whom he interacted.