Image:Cowboy.jpg

Description	"The Cow Boy"
Source	This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division under the digital ID ppmsc.02638 This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.
Date	c. 1888
Author	J.C.H. Grabill, Sturgis, Dakota Ter.
Permission (Reusing this image)	This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1923. See this page for further explanation. Deutsch | English | Español | Français | Gaeilge | Galego | Italiano | Nederlands | ‪中文(简体)‬ | +/- This image might not be in the public domain outside of the United States (this especially applies in Canada, China (not Hong Kong, Macao, or Taiwan Area), Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland). The creator and year of publication are essential information and must be provided. See Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Copyrights for more details.

Cowboy circa 1887

[edit] About this Photograph

This image, entitled "The Cow Boy", was taken by John C H Grabill (1866 - 1934) in 1887. Between about 1888 and 1900 Grabill sent many of his photographic prints to Washington to have them copyrighted. The Grabill collection is now in the w:en:Library of Congress and these wonderful photographs are now in the public domain.

Little is known about Grabill. He was born in 1866 in Illinois. Many articles about Grabill can be found at www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org by searching in the region that contains Pitkin County. He was involved in mining in the Aspen and Buena Vista areas from 1881 to 1886. Based on the labels on the mounts of the prints, he had photographic studios in Colorado, Chicago, Deadwood, Sturgis and Lead. The Denver Public Library has a photograph taken in 1887 which shows Grabill's photographic studio and assay office in Buena Vista, Colorado. According to the Sturgis Weekly Record, he traveled all over the west, looking for a place to open a photographic studio before he settled on Sturgis. He opened his studio in Sturgis in November of 1886. The article in the Record says that one of the things he had to do to open the studio was to train assistants to do the studio photography. This explains how he could live in Aspen and Sturgis while having a studio in Buena Vista and how he could travel and take pictures such as the ones of the W:en:Wounded Knee Massacre while keeping the studio in Deadwood open. Another Article in the Record says that he was leaving the area forever and going to Chicago in October of 1887. It seems that he didn't get any farther than Deadwood where he opened another studio. He was the official photographer of the Black Hills Railroad and the Homestake Mine. Most of his photographs were taken in South Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming.

According to Arizona author Gladwell "Toney" Richardson, who wrote many dime novels and many historical articles under pseudonyms like "Maurice Kildare", "The Cow Boy" is an unknown member of w:en:Yavapai County Arizona Sheriff John Mulvenon's posse which was sent twice in 1887 to intervene in the w:en:Pleasant Valley War. "The Cow Boy" does bear a striking resemblance to posse member Fletcher Fairchild, later Sheriff of w:en:Coconino County.

After living in South Dakota Grabill moved to Chicago where he assisted in taking photographs of the Kwakiutl indians during the world's fair. Historians have been frustrated by their inability to find any of Grabill's notes, glass plate negatives, etc., however some of this material is in the Elmo Scott Watson collection in the special collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago. When he died in 1934 in Peoria County, Illinois his occupation was listed on his death certificate as teamster and janitor for a moving company.

Fletch Fairchild was typical of the thousands of courageous young men who helped tame the Wild West but whose names and stories have since been largely forgotten. For every Wild Bill Hickok or Wyatt Earp immortalized by the dramatic exaggerations of dime novelists and sensationalistic journalists, the West had dozens of men like John Fletcher Fairchild, who quietly did their duty with little fanfare, celebration, or thanks.

http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/days_show.pl?name=2003_12_14&h=%7cJohn%20Fletcher%20Fairchild%7c

http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/days_show.pl?name=2006_10_08&h=%7cFletcher%20Fairchild%7c

[edit] File history

18:43, 26 March 2005 || w:en:User:Frank101|| 607×505 || 47,630 || (Clearer version of public domain photo.) 09:21, 27 April 2003 || w:en:User:Egil|| 304×213 || 15,900 || (Cowboy circa 1887 )

[edit] Image description page history

• Oklahoma
• Cowboy
• Western United States
• Animal husbandry
• American Old West
• Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/April-2005
• Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Cowboy
• Talk:Western United States/sandbox
• User:Trekphiler
• Wikipedia talk:Userboxes/Sports
• User:Zarniwoot
• Sonora's Death Row
• User talk:Kylu/Archive 6