Newman Portal Search: Wolf Robe

A Newman Portal user searched this week for “wolf robe,” which we took to be a typographical error for “Wolfeboro,” the location of the Stack’s Bowers New Hampshire office. Not the case! Wolf Robe was a 19th century Cheyenne leader who was presented with a Benjamin Harrison peace medal (Julian IP-48), c. 1890. Fake Indian peace medals seemingly outnumber the genuine article by several orders of magnitude, but in this case there is contemporary photographic evidence of Wolf Robe wearing such a medal. Francis Paul Prucha’s Indian Peace Medals in American History identifies 18 recipients of this medal, including Wolf Robe. An example of the Harrison medal, engraved by Charles Barber, was presented for sale by Stack’s Bowers in February 2015, where it sold for $49, 937.50.Link to Stack’s Bowers February 2015 sale, lot 41, on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=3&AuctionId=517104&page=26