Hartwell was born in Canada in 1852 and appears in the US Census as a photographers assistant in the late 1870’s. After his migration to the US, he lived and worked in the Phoenix area. Hartwell entered into several partnership during his career and his photographs may be listed as: Buehman and Hartwell, Hartwell and Hamaker or F.A. Hartwell. Hartwell was quite enterprising and took advantage of the interest in Native Americans and began to document the lives of the local Native American population. Primarily the Salt River Pima/Maricopa tribe located east of Phoenix. Hartwell would not be considered a photographer of Native Americans only, during his 26 year career as a photographer he documented the early history of Arizona with an emphasis on Phoenix until he passed away in 1908. Rowe, Jeremy. “The Arizona Views of Francis Albert Hartwell”. Journal of Arizona History, vol. 53, no.3 (Autumn 2012).