Benedicte Wrensted

Benedicte Marie Wrensted (February 10, 1859 – January 19, 1949) was a notable Danish-American photographer, who emigrated to the United States after running a studio for a few years in Horsens, Denmark.

[3] After immigrating to the United States from Denmark, she first went to visit a cousin in Philadelphia, then went on to Pocatello, a small town in southeastern Idaho where her brother Peter lived.

She consulted tribal elders from the nearby Fort Hall Indian Reservation, wrote letters to people, checked business directories and looked through tons of museums and libraries in an effort to uncover the background of Wrensted and her photographs.

Scherer encourages the reader to "go beyond consideration of Wrensted's portraits as art," by advocating for the identification of the individual people portrayed in the photos as a means of avoiding stereotyping and the characterization of generic Indians as more "noble savages".

"[4] According to Scherer's estimates, today 170 of Wrensted's Shoshone Bannock images are known to exist in various collections, with a substantial number at the Idaho Museum of Natural History.

Photographic portrait of Pohene and Frank George, two Shoshone people in traditional dress
Portrait by Benedicte Wrensted of Pohene and Frank George, Lemhi Shoshone and Northern Shoshone (ca. 1897)
Black-and-white photographic portrait of Jimmie Sequint, a Northern Shoshone man in traditional dress.
Portrait by Wrensted of Jimmie Sequint, Northern Shoshone (ca. 1897)