Barry, D. F. (David Francis), 1854-1934

Photographer. Superior Wisconsin.

David F. Barry was born near Rochester, N.Y. in 1854. In 1861 he moved with his family to Wisconsin where as a teenager he began working for the itinerant photographer, O.S. Goff. In 1878, Goff hired Barry to work with him in his photographic gallery in Bismark, Dakota Territory and the two men eventually became business partners. Between 1878 and 1883, Barry traveled to Fort Buford, Fort Yates and other military installations in the Dakota Territory. During these trips, he photographed famous Native Americans including Sitting Bull, Rain in the Face, Gall, Red Cloud and Shooting Star. Barry also photographed some of the most important forts and battlefields associated with the Plains Indians Wars as well as military officers, soldiers, trappers and pioneers. In 1890, Barry returned to Superior, Wis., and opened a photographic gallery and studio dealing with his Dakota Territory photographs. He died in Superior, Wis. in 1934.

Bismarck, Dakota Territory and North Dakota, and Superior, Wisconsin, photographer.

Born in Honeoye Falls, N.Y., in 1854, D.F. Barry learned photography from O.S. Goff when Goff was an itinerant photographer operating from Portage, Wisconsin. In 1878, Goff took on Barry as his assistant and Barry managed his studio in Bismarck while Goff toured and photographed plains forts. In 1880 Barry set up a mobile gallery at Fort Buford, Dakota Territory, and later travelled to many forts, capturing Indians in both portraits and natural settings. By 1884, Barry had purchased Goff's Bismarck studio including Goff's own negatives, which Barry later marketed as his own. Barry moved his studio to Superior, Wisconsin, in 1890, and with the exception of one year when he opened a studio in New York City, he remained in Superior until his death in 1934.