Images from the first-known Native American female photographer

Friends walk along the Ozark and Cherokee Central train tracks under construction in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, 1902. Collection number 20661.17.

Jennie Ross Cobb

All photographs by Jennie Ross Cobb, courtesy of Oklahoma Historical Society, Jennie Ross Cobb Collection. 

Jennie Ross Cobb, born Jennie Fields Ross —“Jen” to those who knew her best — most likely bought her first camera around 1902. The sixth of nine children born to Robert Bruce and Frances (Thornton) Ross, Jennie experimented with photography as early as 1895. But it wasn’t until later, just ahead of her 21st birthday, that she cemented her place in both Cherokee and photographic history. 

By: Will Chavez

Image credit: Jennie Ross Cobb

PHOTOSMarch 25, 2022From the print edition