Hermann Stieffel, Soldier Artist of the West

Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology Paper 12
Hermann Stieffel, Soldier-Artist of the West Edgar M. Howell


Figure 1.—Area in which Hermann Stieffel served with Company K, 5th U.S. Infantry, 1858-1882.

By Edgar M. Howell
A number of gifted artists painted the West and the colorful Indian-fighting army of the post-Civil-War period, but since none of these were military men their work lacked the viewpoint that only a soldier could provide.
German-born Hermann Stieffel, for 24 years a private in the U.S. Infantry, painted a series of water colors while serving in the Indian country in the 1860's and 1870's. Although Stieffel could never be called talented, and certainly was untutored as an artist, his unusually canny eye for the colorful and graphic and his meticulous attention to detail have given us valuable pictorial documentaries on the West during the Indian wars.
The Author: Edgar M. Howell is curator of military history in the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution.