Film and Photography on the Front Range

Film & Photography

On the Front Range

Edited by

Tim Blevins, Dennis Daily, Sydne Dean,

Chris Nicholl, Michael L. Olsen & Katie Rudolph

Published by

Pikes Peak Library District

Film and Photography on the Front Range

Copyright 2012 Pikes Peak Library District.

All rights reserved. Smashwords edition.

Who First Photographed the Rockies?, by William Henry Jackson, previously appeared in The Trail, February 1926, Vol. XVII, No. 9, a monthly publication for Colorado and devoted to the interest of the society of Sons of Colorado.

Photographing the Rockies Fifty Years Ago for the U.S. Geological Surveys, by William Henry Jackson, previously appeared in Colorado Magazine, March 1926, Vol. III, No. 1, published by the Colorado Historical Society, now History Colorado, http://www.historycolorado.org.

Photography, by William A. Bell, previously appeared in New Tracks in North America: A Journal of Travel and Adventure Whilst Engaged in the Survey for a Southern Railroad to the Pacific Ocean During 1867-8, (London: Chapman and Hall, 1869).

This publication was made possible by private funds. Interpretation of events and conclusions are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD), PPLD Board of Trustees, or PPLD employees and editors.

Smashwords e-book ISBN 978-1-56735-327-3

paperback ISBN 978-1-56735-297-9

Library of Congress Control Number 2012938295

The Pikes Peak Library District’s Regional History Series chronicles the unique and often undocumented history of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West.

For purchasing information, contact:

Clausen Books

2131 North Weber Street

Colorado Springs, Colorado 80907

tel: (719) 471-5884, toll free: (888)-412-7717

http://www.clausenbooks.com

Regional History Series

Currently In Print

The Colorado Labor Wars: Cripple Creek 1903–1904,

A Centennial Commemoration

"To Spare No Pains": Zebulon Montgomery Pike

& His 1806–1807 Southwest Expedition

Doctor at Timberline: True Tales, Travails,

& Triumphs of a Pioneer Colorado Physician

Legends, Labors & Loves:

William Jackson Palmer, 1836–1909

Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West

Lightning in His Hand:

The Life Story of Nikola Tesla

Enterprise & Innovation in the Pikes Peak Region

The Pioneer Photographer:

Rocky Mountain Adventures with a Camera

A City Beautiful Dream:

The 1912 Vision for Colorado Springs

Forthcoming

Doctors, Disease & Dying in the Pikes Peak Region

Rush to the Rockies:

The 1859 Pikes Peak or Bust Gold Rush

Acknowledgments

The Pikes Peak Library District’s Regional History Series chronicles the unique and often undocumented history of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. This is our publishing goal. To accomplish this we rely on, and are indebted to, the contributors of all of the chapters appearing in our books. All authors devoted significant time in researching and writing their chapters—often at the cost of many weekends and even sleep! The editorial committee recognizes these generous efforts and is thankful for the work and dedication of all of the contributors.

We also depend on volunteer experts to accomplish the editing of our books. We are grateful to Dr. Michael L. Olsen for sharing his knowledge of history, writing, and editing to publish this book. Film & Photography on the Front Range is the largest book to date in the Regional History Series and could not have been achieved without Mike’s patient assistance.

The editorial committee also selects PPLD Special Collections staff members to assist with editing each Regional History Series book. We appreciate Katie Rudolph, photo archivist, for her superior writing and editing skills, as well as her expertise in photographs and photographers of this region. Katie also does a spectacular job designing book covers for the Series.

Proofreading can be a tedious task, however, the enthusiasm exhibited by Special Collections staff members Emily Anderson, Toni Miller, Heather Norris, Susie Stepanek, and Bill Thomas was incredible and much appreciated. Nina Kuberski can always be depended upon to scan photographs, which was especially vital for this book.

Speaking of photographs, our gratitude is due the individuals and organizations that provided images to illustrate this book, including: Amon Carter Museum; Ed and Nancy Bathke; Joseph P. Eckhardt; Ivan and Stan Brunk; Colorado Springs Day Nursery at Early Connections Learning Centers; Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum; Free Library of Philadelphia; History Colorado; the Idleman family; Levi Jansen; City of Las Vegas Museum and Rough Rider Collection; Library of Congress; Joyce B. Lohse; Ann Lowry; Manitou Springs Heritage Center; Michael L. Olsen; New Mexico Film Office; Royal Gorge Regional Museum and History Center; Katie Rudolph; Tutt Library’s Special Collections at Colorado College; U.S. Geological Survey; University of Washington Library’s Special Collections; Ute Pass Historical Society; Paul L. Weitfle III; and Yale University Art Gallery. We also thank all of the donors of photographs that are contained in Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District.

The Editorial Committee

FOREWORD

Before Facebook and YouTube, and the relative ease of digital picture taking, the making of a photograph or a motion picture required a seemingly miraculous combination of light, camera, chemistry, talent, patience, and providence. Variations in processes and technique evolved and photographers learned to master the variables and create images that did more than just capture a picture, but also conveyed atmosphere, emotion, and a story.

Film and Photography on the Front Range will acquaint the reader with the stories of many photographers of the region. From the earliest Rocky Mountain daguerreotypist in 1851, landscape pioneers, portraitists, silent filmmakers, theater commercial producers, fine arts photographers, to photojournalists, you will discover a picturesque history of Colorado image making. There have been so many photographers in Colorado that it would require multiple volumes for a comprehensive treatment of the subject. A few of the women and men in this book are famous, others are known only locally, and many are virtually anonymous today. Still, all of them made their unique contribution to the visual arts. For some, there remains little or no evidence of their pictorial work—perhaps only a reproduction based on a photograph, or a film review from the newspaper—and now, this book.

A few facts recounted in this volume may surprise you. Lest we spoil the stories, we will just share a few details: Did you know that the earliest extant photograph made in what is now the state of Colorado is a daguerreotype from 1853? Did you know that it normally required at least 30 minutes to coat, expose and develop a wet plate negative? Did you know that a nationally controversial 1916 film about contraception and abortion was partially filmed in Colorado Springs? Did you know that internationally known photographers lived in Colorado? Did you know that the nation’s largest producer of theatrical commercials in its time was headquartered in Colorado Springs? Read this book to learn more intriguing particulars.

The Front Range was, and is, a natural setting for photography and motion pictures. Photographers found distinctive landscapes and a unique quality of light, while filmmakers could create scenes portraying international  locations in the diverse terrain and cityscapes. Amateur photographers recognized this, too. Tourists have collected snapshots of the region for more than a century—pasting them in family albums or stuffing them into shoeboxes to be discovered and enjoyed again. Today, it is more likely that photographs will be saved on a computer hard drive, memory cards smaller than a postage stamp, or online in the cloud.

Even with the simple and affordable digital cameras and devices that we have today, which make it possible for anyone to make a photograph or a movie, it is evident that making a good photograph or a good movie takes something more. We can learn a lot from those who did not have it so easy, yet created extraordinary pictures that still inspire us today.

Paula J. Miller, Executive Director, PPLD

Tim Blevins, Special Collections Manager, PPLD

Cover photograph: Photographing Pikes Peak, undated. Gift of Broun H. and Melba Mayall, Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (102-10513).

About Pikes Peak Library District

Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) is the second largest library district in the State of Colorado and regularly places in the top tier of national library rankings. It serves more than half a million residents in El Paso County providing over 700 hours of library service a week throughout the 2,000 square miles of its service area. PPLD’s fourteen facilities, online resources, and mobile library service provide access to materials, technology, spaces, and programs that are critical to the public, making it a vital force for individual and community transformation.

PPLD is recognized for its commitment to diversity and community collaboration, its quality programming, and its excellent customer service. It provides direct service to patrons of all ages and backgrounds, establishing connections with educational and service organizations and hosting forums and dialogs on issues that are critical to the region’s future. Statistically speaking:

• More than 298,000 individuals attended PPLD programs in 2010. Public meeting rooms were used nearly 10,000 times by community groups.

• On average, Pikes Peak Library District checks out 23,500 items each day. With annual circulation of 8.58 million, PPLD ranks among the highest circulating systems in the country.

• The number of individuals who walk into our libraries over the course of a year exceeds 4,300,000, an average of 11,800 per day.

Board of Trustees 2012

Kathleen Owings, President

Jill Gaebler, Vice President

Katherine Spicer, Secretary/Treasurer

Kenneth Beach

John Bornschein

Cathy Grossman

John Wilson

Executive Director

Paula J. Miller

Regional History Series

Editorial Committee

Tim Blevins

Dennis Daily

Sydne Dean

Chris Nicholl

Principal Series Consultant

Calvin P. Otto

Cover Design

Katie Rudolph

Table of Contents

Title page

Foreword

Acknowledgements

About Pikes Peak Library District

Imaging & Imagining: Focusing on the History of Film & Photography

Who First Photographed the Rockies?

Photographing the Colorado Rockies Fifty Years Ago For the U.S. Geological Surveys

Photography

Artist’s Glen—A Tale of Two Photographers: William E. Hook & Paul Idleman

Searching for the Early Women Photographers of the Pikes Peak Region

On the Road to Hollywood

Romaine Fielding & the Lubin Manufacturing Company

Otis B. Thayer & the Pikes Peak Films Company

Photographer Laura Gilpin: Colorado’s Highly Individualistic Eye 1891–1979 Her Local Roots & Influences

The Alexander Film Company: The Birth of Theatrical & Television Advertising

Harry Landis Standley: Colorado’s Best Press Agent

Portrait of a Photographer: Stanley L. Payne

Photographer Snapshot: Bob McIntyre

When the West was New: Exploring Robert Adams’s Colorado Springs

Photographer Snapshot: Lew Tilley

Portrait of a Photographer: Myron Wood

A Brief Oral Memoir

Still Life to Reel Life: The Journey of Karol W. Smith

Photographer Snapshot: Guy Burgess

A 1911 Colorado Springs Photo Album Reveals its Front Range Secrets

Selected Bibliography

Back to Contents

In celebration of their 50th year in business, the Eastman Kodak Company created a promotion to provide children turning 12 years of age during 1930 with a free Kodak camera and film. The promotion was a tactic to get young people interested in photography and to become consumers of Kodak film. The camera given away was the Hawk-Eye No. 2, a no-frills, reissued 1913 model that used 120 mm film. Approximately 550,000 of these cameras, identified by a golden paper seal on the side of the camera, were given away in the United States and Canada during the first week of May 1930.

The Stewart Brothers store at 17 North Tejon Street on May 1, 1930, with a line of people waiting to take part in Kodak’s 50th anniversary giveaway in which any child who turned 12 years of age during 1930 was eligible to receive a free camera with film, when accompanied by a parent or guardian. It was reported in the Gazette the following day that about 600 cameras were given out to Colorado Springs children by Kodak dealers including Stewart Brothers and Out West Printing & Stationery Company. Stewart’s Commercial Photographers, Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (013-2018).

Imaging & Imagining: Focusing on the History of Film & Photography

Michael L. Olsen

It is generally acknowledged that the movie Birth of a Nation, directed and produced by D. W. (David Wark) Griffith, was the first major blockbuster in American cinematic history. It was also one of the most controversial movies ever released, depicting as it does scenes of the Civil War, slavery, racism, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Additionally, it featured a meticulously detailed recreation of Lincoln’s assassination.

This film debuted in 1915, nearly a century ago. It is interesting to speculate on the audiences who saw it then. Tens of thousands of men in the theaters would have been Civil War veterans, and people would have remembered where they were when they heard the news of Lincoln’s death. Some elementary calculations support this point: Lincoln died and the Civil War ended in 1865. Hence, in 1915, many veterans could have been just 70 years old, or perhaps even younger. Anyone 10 ten years old in 1865, old enough to remember the news of so traumatic a national tragedy as the assassination, would have been just 60 years old.

How might seeing a dramatization of the events at Ford’s Theater via the relatively new medium of moving pictures have changed people’s perception of what they thought they knew and understood about Lincoln and the assassination? They most likely had seen illustrations, but now it was live, happening right before their eyes. Many of them from this point on, when they were reminded of Lincoln, might have substituted Griffith’s version for one that they had played in their heads previously. The movie depiction was now true for them. Conversely, they might have said to themselves and others, Well, it was just a movie. But even so, did it cause them to reflect on the actual event and, perhaps, revise their understanding of this episode in history?

This essay has two aims. One is to explore the questions just asked in a broad framework. How did the advent of photographs and then various media with live action change Americans’ views of themselves, of American society, American values, and both the past and the future? Or, in a wider context, how did these developments alter their understanding of what it means to be human, especially when compared to human history before photography and film were invented? Further, we can ask, how are we today affected along these same lines by these media? The other aim of this essay is to provide a context for the historical articles in this volume by reviewing briefly the history of photography, film, television, videos and various Internet media—from the very first photograph to the latest viral video on YouTube.

The average American household, for decades now, has been cluttered with hundreds or thousands of photographs, slides, home movies, video tapes, and now video clips. There are millions of birthdays, Christmases, bar mitzvahs, births, homecoming dances and so forth languishing in closets, basement cupboards, and—yes, on CDs, computers and iPads. To reiterate, why do we keep all of these pictures? What do they mean to us? How do they reflect us, inform us, and change us? In addition, think of the technology we have mastered just in our lifetimes to capture these images—from the Kodak Brownie camera to the webcam.

Photography & Photographs

The world’s first photograph was taken in 1822, but the first popular and widespread photographic process, the daguerreotype, didn’t come along until 1839. That year also saw the introduction of hyposulfite of soda, commonly used to fix images on glass plate negatives. The first color photograph dates back to 1861, though color processing for the masses didn’t become practical or economical until after World War II. Celluloid film for cameras appeared in 1878 and Kodak marketed its initial box camera in 1888. The Kodak Brownie became available in 1900 and was wildly popular for decades.

The German optics firm of Ernst Leitz brought out a 35 mm film camera, the Leica, for still photography in 1925. General Electric produced the first modern flash bulb two years later, in 1927. Further advances followed rapidly. Kodacolor film dates from 1942 and Polaroid cameras, with film that developed the picture right before your eyes, hit the streets in 1948. Kodak’s Instamatic camera arrived in 1963. Three decades later, in the mid-1990s, digital cameras appeared. And then came a major change, heralded by Polaroid when it discontinued its instant camera in 2009, followed by the end of Kodachrome film the same year. The digital age was fully upon us.

We are more or less familiar with the cameras and types of film that have come along in the last half century or so. But, since some of the articles that follow in this volume consider photographers in the 19th century, we should perhaps remind ourselves of the now arcane processes for taking photographs way back then. Some of the more commonly encountered photographic terms from that age include:

Daguerreotype—named after French inventor, Louis Daguerre and, as indicated above, used from 1839 on. In this process, a copper plate coated with silver was exposed in the camera and then held over a pool of heated mercury to develop. The mercury set the picture—and endangered the life of the photographer. A major limitation of this process was that every photograph was unique; making a copy required taking a photograph of the original.

Tintype—introduced in 1853. In this instance, a direct positive image was produced on a thin sheet of iron—the tin is a misnomer—that had a combination of chemicals painted on it. It was then developed in a chemical bath.

Glass plates—used especially by commercial photographers and for landscape photography. Chemicals painted on a glass plate were exposed for the photograph. There were two types of glass plate photography—the wet-collodion process in which the chemicals on the plate remain wet as they were inserted into the camera, and the dry-collodion process, which, as the name implies, involved the insertion of dry plates.

Lantern slides—the PowerPoint of the 19th century. They were introduced in 1849 and have been boring the neighbors ever since. A glass plate photo would be illuminated from behind, with candles, oil lamps or, later, electric light and then projected. Often the photographs were hand-colored.

Stereoscopy—the 3-D of the 19th century. Two views of the same scene were pasted on an oblong card about four by six inches wide and then mounted in a holder and viewed through a special lens.

Shall We Go to the Movies or Watch TV?

Several articles in this book deal with the emergence of the film industry in the Pikes Peak region and its economic and cultural impact. As with the evolution of photography, our understanding of what happened regionally is enhanced by looking at the national and even global historical emergence of film, television, video and similar media.

Moving pictures date back well over a century. The Edison Manufacturing Company invented the kinetoscopic camera in 1891. Soon luminaries of the day—Teddy Roosevelt comes to mind—were caught on film for future generations, albeit in a rather jerky fashion. Another technological advance was the ability, after 1902, to transmit pictures, at first only photographs, via telephone and telegraph wires. Wireless transmissions were perfected in the 1920s. Next, the era of the silent movie passed and talking pictures began putting movie house pianists out of work. The Jazz Singer, with Al Jolson, the first publicly acclaimed talkie, screened in 1927. Movies shot in color had been around even since Edison’s day, but it took the invention of the three color camera in 1932 to bring vivid color to the screen. The movie Gone with the Wind, released in 1939, is often regarded as the first color film to have a major impact on audiences. It was also the longest sound film up to that date.

The advent of television came much earlier than is commonly realized. Innovators made experimental television broadcasts in the 1920s in England and the United States. The first transatlantic TV transmission, from London to New York City, came in 1927. TV station W3XK, in Wheaton, Maryland, went on the air in 1928 and CBS television began broadcasting in 1931 in New York. Videotaping of live television shows began in 1951. Videotape for home use, our now out-of-date VHS and VCRs, was introduced in 1976. In 1986, Sony Corporation sold its first Handycam, a handheld video recorder for general use that now looks like a relic from the Paleolithic Age. Digital Versatile Disks—DVDs—appeared in the mid-1990s and have been evolving ever since. The Internet has been around since the late 1960s and became the global communal tool we rely on today in the 1990s. YouTube has been with us just seven years, since 2005.

There is a wonderful story about the early days of television in England. The BBC began regular television broadcasting in 1936. Service was suspended in 1939 when World War II broke out in Europe. In fact, the BBC shut down transmission just a few minutes after the first of the bombing raids on London. A Mickey Mouse cartoon had just been shown and, in 1945 when transmission was resumed, the BBC came back on the air with another Mickey Mouse cartoon. The TV commentator supposedly said, We resume our programming where we left off when we were so rudely interrupted.

How Have These Media Changed Us?

While the history of photography and film is engaging, a more important focus of this essay, as already indicated, is to raise questions about how we as individuals, a society, a nation, and a global community have been affected by these technologies over the course of two centuries. Obviously, there are thousands and thousands of books, articles, and Internet sites on this topic—it is one of the leading cultural conundrums of our age. What will be highlighted here is how each of us in our own lives can be aware of the impact of these media, even as we use and enjoy them.

For nearly 40 years I taught various history subjects at the university level. In my classes, students always wrote a series of short, personal essays outside of the usual classroom assignments. One of these essays took the following form. Each student received two sealed pieces of paper. On opening the first they found they were to write 500 words on my earliest memory. Having done this, they then opened the second which had just two words—Prove it! As can be imagined, telephone calls to distant family or questioning of brothers and sisters soon followed, or perhaps they dug around in the family photo bin.

I shall always remember one essay I got on this theme. The student said her earliest memory was when her father came home from his army duty in Operation Desert Storm. She recalled the hugs, kisses and tears—all of which the family captured on video. Then she said, Three weeks later my parents announced they were getting a divorce. The last sentence in her essay was concise. It read, Photos lie.

The photograph which accompanies this essay can serve as a foil for all of the questions we should ask about film and photography and its impact. It was taken in 1910 on a farm in north central Iowa. It conveys various messages. First, it is posed, not candid. Second, these folks look prosperous. The relationship among them seems to be parents and their four children, although the gap in ages between the young men and the girls might indicate otherwise. The house is lighted by kerosene lamps—there is one visible in the window on the right. The family heats with wood—there is a wood pile on the left.

We can also interpret the photograph in ways that lead us beyond this moment in time and inform us on a much broader scale. For instance, why are these people posed as they are? Why, more often than not, are wives standing and husbands seated in photographs of this type? Why isn’t this family more closely grouped? What message did these people want to convey? This is a professional photograph so a photographer must have gotten paid to take it. What value did the family expect for its money? And as with all photos, we can wonder what is going on outside the frame? Are these folks farmers? Are there cattle, pigs, and chickens around? Who does what chores? What did everyone do after the picture was taken?

Eventually, with any photograph or film, we reach the point where we can glean no more information unless we have other knowledge about the people or scene it captures, the photographer who took it, or the reason the photograph was taken or the film produced. For instance, since the people depicted in this photograph are the author’s ancestors, we can know that at the time this picture was taken, the language used by all these people at home was Norwegian. The father of the family was a successful farmer, but would die early, in 1921 at the age of 55, on a street in Osage, Iowa, of a brain aneurism. His wife, whose father was a Civil War veteran, would remarry and her second husband would be regarded warmly by everyone in the family. The son who is seated will marry in two years, be given a farm as a wedding present, and then lose it in the agricultural depression following World War I. He will turn to alcohol, desert the family, and his wife and children will be left destitute and live in poverty for years, a fate which will mark them and their offspring. The other son, who is standing, will become a banker but also abuse alcohol. In the family, he will be known as the one who drank up two farms. The girls will each live to be over 90 years old, but Alzheimer’s disease will rob them of their last decade. The house will be torn down in the 1960s.

A farm in north central Iowa, 1910. Photographs can provide evidence of appearances on the surface, but also can expose underlying questions that cannot be answered without knowledge of the image’s subject and the context. Michael L. Olsen collection.

All of that information and interpretation is contained in just this one photograph. By extension, every photograph, film, or video from the past, in the present, or in the future, can be—and should be—approached in the same way. This does not mean we should all become media critics. Viewing visual media in this way, however, broadens and deepens our understanding of ourselves, our society, and our world. A picture can be worth a thousand words, it can lie, and as we well know, it can be undetectably altered. Films can be fantasy or documentaries. The bias of the photographer or producer is always present. The Internet cannot be explicitly trusted. We should be not just consumers, but active participants in the visual media that so absorbs us.

Photography & Film in Colorado

The historical and philosophical points made above converge in the story of photography and film in Colorado and in the Pikes Peak region. Here, a brief overview can integrate Colorado in the larger picture and set the stage for the essays that follow.

Two men pioneered photography in Colorado. Today, both have faded into relative obscurity, in part no doubt because none of their original photographs exist. John Wesley Jones came West in 1851 to photograph the Rocky Mountains, the emigrant trails and other Western scenes. He created around 1,500 daguerreotypes. Ultimately, he had large paintings made from some of these photographs, paintings which he turned into a pantoscope, a giant scroll of the pictures which turned on stage before a paying audience while Jones lectured on the scenes portrayed.

Solomon Carvalho also used the daguerreotype process. He accompanied John Charles Frémont’s final Western expedition of 1853–1854. Interestingly, Carvalho had been a portrait painter, but realizing that photography would cut into his business, he learned the new technology and was a well-known portrait photographer when Frémont hired him in New York City. A copy of only one of the hundreds of photographs he took is known to be extant. It is a daguerreotype of Indian tepees, currently in the Brady Collection of the Library of Congress.

In contrast to Wesley and Carvalho, William Henry Jackson is perhaps the most famous of Colorado photographers, and one the outstanding early cameramen of the West. He was active in Colorado from 1873 to 1897. He accompanied various governmental expeditions and worked for several railroad lines. At times he traveled with as many as three cameras—one for producing stereographic views and two using glass plates. Of these latter cameras, one used 8x10-inch plates, the other up to 18x22 inches. Besides being bulky to transport, the glass plates were fragile and Jackson used the wet collodion process, which could require exposures of up to 20 minutes. In the 1880s, Jackson worked out of a studio in Denver. It has been said of Jackson that through his photographs he defined how Americans saw Colorado—when tourists came to Colorado they had a preconceived notion of what it was supposed to look like via Jackson’s photos.

The story of films and filmmaking in Colorado is largely unstudied and undocumented. The Alexander Film Company pioneered the movie business here in the Pikes Peak region as Steve Antonuccio’s essay on the company’s role in the birth of theatrical and television advertising in this volume demonstrates. At present, there is a Colorado Film Commission, and a Colorado Film School administered jointly by the Community College of Aurora and Regis University in Denver. As if to prove all of the points made above in this introduction, there is a delightful and comprehensive short film available on YouTube, produced by David Emrich and the Post Modern Company of Denver, reviewing some of the 375 films made in the last 111 years in Colorado, including footage of cattle branding in El Paso County in 1897. It can lead the viewer deeper into the history of film in the state.

On various levels then, technical, artistic, historical and philosophical, this volume, Film & Photography on the Front Range, adds significantly to our understanding of the topic and how film and photography shape us, even as we consume it in all its past, present and future forms.

Dr. Michael Olsen has a B.A. in history from St. Olaf College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. He is retired as a professor of history from New Mexico Highlands University, where he taught for 30 years. He currently lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His primary research interest is in the social and cultural history of the Santa Fe Trail and the Smoky Hill Trail. He has published extensively on the story and heritage of both trails.

Bibliographic Note

The literature encompassing visual media is vast. All of the names, dates, developments, inventions, etc., mentioned in this essay can be easily referenced, cross-checked and verified, most readily on a host of Internet sites. Although it is somewhat out-of-date, a particularly informative and provocative resource is David E. Kyvig and Martin Marty, Nearly History: Exploring the Past Around You (Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1975). See especially the chapter Visual Documents.

For background on photography and film in Colorado and the Pikes Peak region, the following sources can be profitably consulted.

Ellis, Richard N. and Duane A. Smith. Colorado: A History in Photographs. Niwot,