Women rodeo riders, cowgirls, and hunters photographs, circa 1860-1955

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Summary

Title:
Women rodeo riders, cowgirls, and hunters photographs
Dates:
circa 1860-1955
Containers:
Box: 1
Extent:
0.73 Linear Feet 1 box
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], Women rodeo riders, cowgirls, and hunters photographs, Collection no. 7155, Regional History Collection, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Background

Scope and content:

A collection of images, including silver gelatin photographic prints, photographic postcards, and cabinet cards, of women rodeo riders, cowgirls, and hunters in the Western United States. The material was created between the late nineteenth and mid twentieth centuries. Many of the photographs in the collection depict cowgirls mounted, some on horseback and one depicting famous cowgirl Mildred Douglas riding a wild bucking steer at a rodeo in the 1920s. Another famous cowgirl of the era, Bonnie McCarroll, is pictured in a photograph being thrown off of a horse named Silver at the Pendleton Roundup rodeo in 1916. A 1909 photo postcard from Western photographer George B. Cornish displays a young cowgirl dubbed "The Flower of the Prairie." Some of the images in the collection show women hunters with rifles posing next to hunted animals. Following is an incomplete list describing some of the other images held in the collection.

  1. One 19th century cabinet card showing two women hunters holding rifles next to their hunt of rabbits.
  2. Two real photo postcards of cowgirls in action, one partaking in "trick riding" at the "Mandan Rodeo" in North Dakota around the mid 20th century. One woman is shown latched on to the underside of a horse as it runs at full speed and the other is shown standing upright on a running horse.
  3. One photograph showing a woman smiling at the camera atop a horse that's about to buck.
  4. One larger photograph showing a young girl with pigtails holding a rifle and posed next to a deer. Pasted en verso is a cut piece of a published article dated "11/30/51" with text stating that the Milwaukee girl is only 12 years old and "displays the first deer she ever shot."
  5. One photograph showing two middle aged women dressed in fine 1940s clothing next to their two full sized does with their rifles leaned against the animals.
Acquisition information:
Purchased from Max Rambod Rare Books, November 15, 2023 and March 21, 2024.
Dimensions:
Items in the collection range in size between 2.75" x 3.75" and 7" x 9".
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Bo Doub -- with the scope and contents note adapted from the seller, Max Rambod Rare Books
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-02-28 14:55:20 -0800 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection stored off-site. Advance notice required for access.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], Women rodeo riders, cowgirls, and hunters photographs, Collection no. 7155, Regional History Collection, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Location of this collection:
Special Collections
Doheny Memorial Library, Room 209
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0182, US
Contact:
(213) 740-5900
specol@usc.edu
Website