page_title: William J. Oliphant
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: William J. Oliphant / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Oliphant-Walker House in Austin, Texas in May, 2008.
context_page_description: William J. Oliphant was an American Confederate States Army veteran and photographer from Austin, Texas. He published the first photographs of buffalo hunts in North America.
context_section_description: During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, Oliphant served as a private in the Company G of the Sixth Texas Infantry Regiment, also known as the "Travis Rifles," of the Confederate States Army (CSA). He served in the Battle of Missionary Ridge, the Battle of Pickett's Mill, and the Battle of Atlanta (where he was wounded and caught by Union forces). He was in prison at Camp Chase for nearly a year, from July 1864 to March 1865.
  Shortly after the war, Oliphant became a photographer in Austin. His studio was above his father's jewellery shop at 117 Pecan Street. Indeed, together with Hamilton B. Hillyer (1835–1903), he was one of the earliest photographers in Austin to have a studio in the city. Additionally, he published photographs taken by other photographers. He is perhaps best known for publishing the earliest photographs of buffalo hunts in the United States. They are known as the Life on the Frontier series, taken by George Robertson in 1874.
  From the 1880s to the 1920s, Oliphant worked for the government. He worked for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts from 1881 to 1886, the Internal Revenue Service from 1887 to 1890, and for the Travis County Tax Assessor's Office from 1905 to 1927.
caption: The Oliphant-Walker House in Austin, Texas, where William J. Oliphant resided.
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