Moorhouse, Lee, 1850-1926

Thomas Leander Moorhouse (1850-1926), known as Major Lee Moorhouse, was an amateur photographer from Pendleton, Or. In 1878, he served as field secretary for Oregon governor Stephen F. Chadwick during the Bannock-Paiute War and the following year was appointed to the Third (Eastern Ore.) Brigade of the Oregon State Militia, where he earned the rank of Major. The owner of a mercantile business in Pendleton, Moorhouse & Livermore (later Lee Moorhouse and Co.), Lee Moorhouse also served one term as mayor of the city in 1885. From 1889 to 1891, he was employed as the agent to the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Lee Moorhouse began taking photographs circa 1897-1898. During a period when many amateur photographers were experimenting with new innovations in film negatives and snapshot photography, Moorhouse used glass plate negatives to capture his subjects. He took over 9,000 images, photographing the activities of his hometown of Pendleton, Or. and, especially, Native American life in the Columbia River basin and Umatilla County.