ABSTRACT
The narrative begins with an autographed cabinet-card portrait of Sitting Bull before a plain cloth backdrop. The "Battle of Civilization" that Baird describes has been and continues to be the topic of many popular narratives, from the nineteenth century dime novels of Erastus Beadle and John Adams to the twentieth-century Western movies of John Ford. Sitting Bull's surrender to federal authorities at Fort Buford in the Dakota Territory on July 19, 1881, marked an important occasion in the "Battle of Civilization." Given the national demand for a visual record of the events surrounding Sitting Bull's surrender and the nature of the stereograph to provide this type of narrative, the opportunity was ripe for the creation of Bailey, George P. Dix & John L. Mead's photographic series. By choosing to use stereographs to relate the narrative, Bailey, Dix & Mead were targeting a wide audience.
