Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed was an American artist and photographer, was part of an early 20th-century group of photographers of Native Americans known as pictorialists.
Background
Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed was born on June 22, 1864, in Omro, Wisconsin, United States. His father, Royal Sr. (1827-1907), was a farmer and Civil War veteran. His mother, Mary Jane Hammond (1834-1904), was a homemaker. Roland was the fourth of six children. He and his youngest sibling, Mabel, were the only two to survive to adulthood.
Career
Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed left Montana in 1899 and opened his own photo studio in Ortonville. He quickly developed a multi-state reputation as an excellent portrait photographer, especially of children, and a photographer of local landscapes. As his business grew, he opened a second studio about 250 miles away in Bemidji. After a few years, Roland W. Reed began to periodically venture from his Bemidji Studio to photograph the Ojibwe Indians on nearby reservations. In 1907 he sold his Ortonville and Bemidji studios and went to live near the Ojibwe Red Lake Reservation to begin his pursuit of portraying the North American Indian. This task became his full-time mission for the next two years.
In 1909 Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed returned to Montana. He opened a studio in Kalispell. In addition to portrait photography work, he sold copies of his Indian photographs and Native pottery, baskets, and rugs. Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed also began what would become over the next six years an extensive project of photographing the Plains Indians of Northern Montana and Southern Alberta, Canada - the Blackfeet, Piegan, Blood, Flathead, and Cheyenne. During his time in Montana, Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed became part of a community of artists and writers in the area, many of whom also had associations with the Great Northern Railroad and Glacier National Park.
In 1913 Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed spent a number of months in Arizona photographing the Navajo and Hopi. Many of these photographs are against the extraordinary backdrop of Canyon de Chelly. During this time he developed a relationship with John Hubbell and his sons. The Hubbells had various commercial enterprises throughout the Southwest.
Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed returned to Montana in 1913 and then opened a branch studio in San Diego, CA. Actually more of a souvenir shop than photo studio, he used the new location primarily to sell Indian pottery, baskets, and rugs as well as prints of his photographs. By this time he had also moved his studio to Coronado but soon sold it to his assistant, Lou Bigelow. He returned to Kalispell to conclude any outstanding business, then began a period of semi-retirement, returning to Ortonville.
Once back in Ortonville, Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed settled into a more quiet life that did not include studio photography work. He produced a catalog featuring 48 of his images that were for sale as prints in various sizes. In 1916 he purchased land and built a cabin on Lower Bass Lake near Cable, WI, and for the next 5 years, he divided his mostly leisure time between the two locations.
In 1920, Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed relocated to Denver, CO, where he opened a new studio. He worked there until 1927, doing some studio and commercial photography as well as continuing to sell copies of his photographs.
In 1934 Roland (Royal Jr.) Reed spent most of the year in St. Paul, MN collaborating with his cousin Roy Williams on another new project. The idea was to create a vehicle for selling copies of Reed photographs. They planned to develop a series of lectures in which various photographs would be presented via lantern slides and the pictured Native American life would be explained and detailed. A broad audience of different groups and organizations was anticipated. Copies of the photographs and lantern slides could then be purchased at the lectures.
Late that year, while returning to San Diego, he stopped to visit friends in Colorado Springs. While there, he suffered a fatal accident and died on December 14, 1934. Roland W. Reed was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs.