The United States Indian School at Carlisle, Pa., was founded by Gen. Richard Henry Pratt in 1879, and served as a model for government boarding schools for Indians until its closure in 1918. Over 10,000 students enrolled at the Carlisle Training School during its 39 years, where, separated from their native cultures, the students were prepared for work in industrial and manual labor and socialized into "civilized" life. Given new white names to replace their Indian ones, the students were prohibited from speaking their native languages, were instructed in Christianity, and were fed, clothed, and housed under strict military discipline. The 27 photographs in the Speck-Choate Photograph Collection were taken by J. N. Choate, a local commercial photographer in Carlisle, Pa., and collected by the anthropologist Frank G. Speck. Choate advertised "Photographs of all the Indian Chiefs that have visited the Indian Training School at Carlisle Barracks, also of children in native and school costumes" and were intended to document the benefits of civilization that the school brought to Indians. Typical images include "before and after" shots of students in native dress and school uniforms, the school band, and shots of the students at work in the saddle shop and making shoes. Choate also took a number of images of visiting chiefs in traditional dress, including the Lakota chief Spotted Tail, and the Cheyennes Man on Cloud and Mad Wolf. One photograph depicts Richard Henry Pratt seated with Quaker supporters. Among the tribes represented are the Lakota, Laguna, Cheyenne, Creek, Lipan, and Pueblo.

A small collection rich in imagery, the Ellen Lehman Native American Photograph Collection consists of 19 albumen prints of late nineteenth-century Native American leaders on cabinet cards. The bulk of the images date from the 1880s and portray important members of the Dakota Indian tribes, many of whom fought against the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. Army at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Among the leaders depicted are: Sitting Bull, Gall, Rain in the Face, Crow King, and White Bull. The collection also includes two images of Geronimo, the Bedonkohe Apache leader who resisted Mexican and American expansion in the Southwest in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The majority of the photographs in the collection were taken by David Francis Barry, with Orlando Scott Goff and George W. Scott also contributing.