Observations of S.D. Butcher "Cowboy" photos

[Pony Edwards]

I want to thank Delmonico for his continued support of the S.D. Butcher photos. They are truly a slice of American history. I find them fascinating, especially when I find the expected and quite more often, the unexpected. Like this morning when I was looking at the "Cowboys" on the Nebraska History site.

The chaps, saddles, horses etc.. were the expected. The smaller hats, pocket pistols, canvas gaiters, tie shoes, suspenders (in numerous photos), belt loops on pants (1903-05), the use of canvas/denim coveralls with the wool pants visible beneath, and Large robust men (portly) were some of the surprises. I also enjoyed the detail of many of the photos, once I enlarged them.

I spent a lot longer on my viewing than I'd intended, but was well rewarded.

Thanks again,

Pony Edwards

[Delmonico]

The sad thing is, he was one of the few that wanted his photos as natural as possible considering the equipment he had, and more important, he saved the negatives to preserve history.  Now imagine if we'd of had a 100 or more like him, from slightly different areas of the west.  We could have compared the differances between the regions.

Most glass plate negatives, if from a photographer in a city, were sold cheap and often made into green houses that were starting to get popular.

Others like LA Huffman up in Miles City, cleaned the plates and reused them, his pictures which are not on-line as far as I can find only exist in the remaining prints.  He filmed a lot of the last of the hide hunters, most which I'm told have been lost, even the prints.

[Irish Dave]

Many of Huffman's photos are preserved in a volume entitled "The Frontier Years."

I am fortunate to have picked up a copy years ago at a used book store. Good photos and valuable text as well.

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[Delmonico]

Many of Huffman's photos are preserved in a volume entitled "The Frontier Years."

I am fortunate to have picked up a copy years ago at a used book store. Good photos and valuable text as well.

I've had it from the library before, but my understanding is that is a small fraction of his photos and they are not from negatives. 

Still they are a valuble resource.

I wish they would do an update scan on the Butcher photos like they have done with a lot of the Brady negatives:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html

Most of us can handle em now, don't know about downloading a picture that is in the 90+ meg range if you still had a Gateway 2000 and a dial-up connection.  Takes a bit of time on a high-speed and a decent computor.

BTW, some of this stuff from Brady is awsome.

[Irish Dave]

I've had it from the library before, but my understanding is that is a small fraction of his photos and they are not from negatives. 

Still they are a valuble resource.

I wish they would do an update scan on the Butcher photos like they have done with a lot of the Brady negatives:

Agreed.

[Delmonico]

Agreed.

Sadly they've cut the budget for the Nebraska State Historical Society so I don't see it happening soon.