Ben Wittick

George Benjamin Wittick (January 1, 1845 – August 30, 1903), usually known as Ben Wittick, was an American photographer. He is known for his photos of the American frontier and of Native Americans.

He started his photography work in the town of Moline, Illinois, then traveling to the southwest US. In 1900, he established his final studio at Fort Wingate, New Mexico.

Biography
George Benjamin Wittick was born January 1, 1845 in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania to Conrad Wittick and Barbara Petrie who were German immigrants. Around 1854, he travelled westward with his parents, where they settled in the town of Moline, Illinois.

Wittick served In the American Civil War for the Union when he was 16, before being discharged in Minnesota in 1865. He married in 1866 to Frances “Fannie” Averill. Wittick had six children total. In the town of Moline where he lived, he learned photography from a Mr. Mangold who operated a gallery. After 1870, he started some of his travels west, where he went on to photograph many landscapes, portraits and Native American tribes including the Hopi, Navajo, Apache, and Zuni. In 1878, he arrived in New Mexico after the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Wittick is often attributed with taking the only authenticated photo of Billy the Kid around 1880. He would also later author a photograph of Geronimo kneeling with a rifle, in 1887.

He died August 30, 1903, in Fort Wingate, New Mexico, after a rattlesnake bite from which he never recovered. He was bitten weeks previous, while handling the snake before he left Fort Wingate. His death was said to have been foretold by a Hopi medicine man. He was buried in Moline, Illinois in 1903.