author
Walter McClintock
1870–1949
Best known for The Old North Trail, this Yale-educated writer and photographer spent years documenting Blackfeet life, stories, and ceremonies in Montana. His work mixes travel writing, ethnography, and early photography, giving readers a vivid window into the American West at the turn of the twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
Old Indian trails
by Walter McClintock
About the author
Born in Pittsburgh in 1870 and educated at Yale, Walter McClintock became known as a writer, photographer, and ethnographic observer of the Blackfeet people. Archival records at Yale describe extensive papers and photographs connected to his work, including material on his photographic practice and public presentations.
McClintock is most closely associated with The Old North Trail, first published in 1910, a book drawn from his years traveling and living among the Blackfeet in Montana. Later sources about the book note that he was adopted by a Blackfeet chief and that his writing focused on Blackfeet society, beliefs, and oral tradition.
Today he is remembered not only for his books but also for the large visual record he left behind. His photographs and lantern slides remain an important part of how libraries and archives preserve a complicated, firsthand record of Blackfeet life from that era.