DeLancey Walker Gill (July 1, 1859 – August 31, 1940) was an American drafter, landscape painter, and photographer known for his paintings of Washington, D.C. and his portrait photography of Native Americans with the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE). Gill first became noted for his landscape illustrations and watercolors, mainly centered on Washington, although also including views of Native American pueblos. Characterized as precise and exact in his landscapes, Gill captured views of working-class and rural areas of D.C. not commonly depicted in period art.
Initially employed as an illustrator and draftsman, Gill was director of the Division of Illustration at the BAE from 1889 to 1932. Although not trained in photography, Gill assumed a role as the BAE's head photographer following the resignation of the Smithsonian's prior photographers. In this duty, he produced thousands of photographs of Native American delegations for the Bureau, including notable figures such as Geronimo and Chief Joseph. As well as in BAE and Smithsonian publications, Gill's photographic work was showcased at the Panama–Pacific Exposition and on a 1923 postage stamp.
Early life and painting career
DeLancey Walker Gill was born in Camden, South Carolina, on July 1, 1859. When he was five, his father was killed in action in service of the Confederate Army. When he was fourteen, his mother and stepfather moved to Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory. Gill chose instead to move in with an aunt in Washington, D.C. He briefly worked as a typesetter before finding employment as a draftsman for the Office of the Supervising Architect for the U.S. Treasury, designing ornamental ironwork and tiles. He was noted for his abilities in capturing linear perspective.
While employed as a draftsman, Gill began a series of ink sketches and watercolor paintings, primarily of D.C. landscapes. He especially focused on capturing the rural periphery and villages within the district, still undeveloped in the period. These brought Gill a considerable amount of local acclaim, to the point that Gill received a greater income from art sales than his work with the Treasury.
The art historians Andrew Cosentino and Henry Glassie described Gill's landscape work as having a "razor-sharp clarity of image", citing an account from an anonymous art critic that his watercolors possessed a "certain microscopic exactness and delicacy of detail." Cheryl Miller praised Gill's work as offering a "window on the city's working class – the fishermen, clerks, laundresses, homemakers, and others seldom included in the art of the character".
William Henry Holmes, a fellow watercolor painter and chief of illustration within the United States Geological Survey (USGS), hired Gill as a paleontological draftsman. Holmes came to greatly respect Gill's artistic work, who was tasked to succeed Holmes as chief of illustration in 1889. In this duty he managed the publication of illustrations and photography, reviewing hundreds of thousands of copies of printed illustrations per year. John Wesley Powell, in a dual role as director of the USGS and the BAE, tasked Gill to additionally serve as supervisor of illustration for the Bureau, although without additional pay.
During his initial time with the Bureau in the late 1880s, Gill produced paintings of southwestern pueblos, departing from his prior focus on Washington. These included the Hopi pueblo of Oraibi, the ruins of the Ancestral Puebloan Pueblo Bonito, and the Zuni Pueblo. His painting of Oraibi was based off an earlier photograph by Smithsonian photographer John K. Hillers, but no photographic source is known for the other pueblos within the series. Gill accounted for minutia such as climatic differences in his landscapes, making use of thin washes for his depictions of southwestern locations. While locally regarded as a talented painter, Gill later ceased to paint as duties within government service came to occupy much of his time.
Photography
Gill transferred to the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1898 following Powell's resignation as head of the USGS, leaving him the head of only the BAE. William Dinwiddie had resigned as ethno-photographer for the BAE in 1897; his replacement, Wells M. Sawyer, resigned the following year. Despite having no prior training in photography, Gill was appointed to this position following Sawyer's resignation. As photographer for the Bureau, Gill's work consisted of portrait photography of Native American subjects in the hundreds of individuals per year, as well as classifying and cataloging the resulting photographic negatives. The total number is unknown but has been estimated to be between 2,000–3,000.