Browse Items (32 total)

Lummis spent his entire career promoting the Southwest and its "Original Americans." An obituary in the Los Angeles Times described the American explorer, author, and amateur photographer as "one of the first writers to realize that the history of…

Georgetown, Colorado, about fifty miles west of Denver, was established in 1864 as a result of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush (1858-1859). From a settlement consisting of four cabins and a few tents, the "Silver Queen of the Rockies" quickly became the…

Russell, chief photographer for the Union Pacific Railroad, made one of the famous photographs of the ceremony joining the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. Following that event, Russell took an…

After being severely injured during the Civil War battle at Antietam, Soule headed west in 1867 to improve his health. He was the brother of John P. Soule (1827-1904), founder of the Soule Photographic Company in Boston, and so set off completely…

Kentucky native Colonel George Washington Miller (d. 1903) established the 101 Ranch in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in 1879. Through acquisitions and lease agreements with the Ponca, Tonkawa, and Osage Indians, the ranch grew from a modest 2,000…

In 1872, Philadelphia photographer Bell replaced O'Sullivan for one year as Wheeler's expedition photographer. The repose of the figure in the photograph was surely intended to disarm the viewer. The figure calls attention to the scale of the…

In 1871, Jackson photographed the Yellowstone region of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho for Ferdinand V. Hayden’s (1829–1887) U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. His photographs were immediately lauded as visual evidence of the…

Coastal northern Oregon was the traditional territory of the Siletz Indians. In 1856, the U.S. government forced the Siletz to absorb at least twelve other Oregon tribes on the reservation created from their homeland. Within just fifty years, the…

The upper-class Cameron and her husband emigrated from Britain to Terry, Montana, in 1889 to try their hand at ranching. Cameron learned photography there and, when ranching proved unprofitable, was able to sell her photographic work locally to make…

In the photograph displayed here, Hillers demonstrates his ability to compose ethnographic views with an artistic sensibility. He uses light and darkness to dramatic effect, positioning a dense shadow diagonally across the bottom of the view that…