Photographer Robert Morrison’s Montana
The artist’s eye for the off-kilter and unusual offers a distinctive portrait of the West at the turn of the 20th century
- By Donna M. Lucey
- Smithsonian.com, October 05, 2009
(Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph Archives, Helena, MT)
In 1878, 28-year-old Robert C. Morrison drifted from the East to Miles City, Montana, an oasis of barrooms, brothels and gambling dens in the hauntingly beautiful and remote plains and badlands of southeastern Montana. The place had begun as a watering hole for wandering buffalo hunters and the soldiers at nearby Fort Keogh; eventually cowboys, sheepherders, railroad workers and a cast of eccentric Britons would join in the fun.
He had an eye for the off-kilter, the anomalous and the marginalized. At his death, at age 87 in 1938, he left behind more than 3,600 glass-plate negatives, but a disagreement among his heirs left them gathering dust—until now. At the Montana Historical Society, which is printing the negatives, photo archivist Lory Morrow, says she and her staff “talk among ourselves” about Morrison’s unusual vision, which, while “off the mainstream” is also “more realistic” than the work of other photographers from that place and time.
“Jones shack along the Yellowstone” is the only identification of this photo, written by an unknown hand. Why did Morrison frame the boat as if it were marooned on the dry-as-toast plains? (He composed all his pictures carefully: the glass-plate negatives he used were fragile and expensive, and they required long exposure times.) The image captures the loneliness of homesteads once inhabited by hopeful pioneers. You can still see them along the Yellowstone River—abandoned and empty, relics of someone’s busted dream of turning the semi-arid land into a profitable farm or ranch.
Miles City lies on the south bank of the Yellowstone River, as does the Northern Pacific Railroad, which arrived in 1881. For those who settled north of the river, isolation was a given. For an instance, an Englishwoman named Evelyn Cameron—another glass-plate photographer of extraordinary talent—moved in 1902 with her husband to a log cabin some 40 miles northeast of Miles City, near Terry, Montana. Their ranch was, “shut in on two sides by the river & badlands,” she wrote her sister. To get their mail and supplies, “we have to ride or drive 28 miles & cross the Yellowstone by a ferry boat in summer & on ice in winter.... [E]verything down to the smallest tin tack has had to be hauled from Terry (14 miles), taken across a rapid river (1050 feet wide), the latter part of the way without any road.”
Thus a dingy could be considered an essential piece of ranch equipment—even if there’s not a drop of water in sight.
Comments (23)
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I am quite exited to find this information that you have presented. I have a small collection of glass photographs of WWI era. I was also born in Missoula, Mt. May 1937. I find all of this very exciting. Thank you!
Posted by Robert Hadley Morrison on November 29,2009 | 05:31 PM
Timothy--
How serendipitous. I'm reading E. Annie Proulx at the moment, so it was especially timely (and lovely)to read your comments about Morrison's wonderfully evocative photographs.
I've greatly enjoyed thinking and writing about these images, and I to continue to explore the mysteries therein.
Posted by Donna Lucey on November 10,2009 | 08:51 PM
Looking at these remarkable photographs, and the "thousand words" they immediately evoke, puts me in mind of the Wyoming Stories by E. Annie Proulx. Both artists capture long disappeared lives and events and everyday strangeness that are too often misrepresented or unexplored. More, please!
Posted by Timothy Cage on November 7,2009 | 07:28 PM
These photographs are exquisite and utterly fascinating, especially with your insightful commentary! There couldn't be a more appropriate author for a future book which, I hope, will not be long in coming!
Posted by Carol Haythorne on November 2,2009 | 09:46 AM
People are too judgemental about the past. Old pictures are great because they tell it like it was and allow people to come to their own conclusions. It seems hard for people to understand how different things were then, socially speaking espeically. All over the country & world there are photography enthusiast who have never heard of these photographers and their pictures. Plelase have more!!
Posted by Clyde Shokes Jr. on October 28,2009 | 01:06 AM
Donna - this is fascinating. I want to know so much more about Morrison. Hope a book will be forthcoming.
Posted by Garnet Tennyson Hadley on October 25,2009 | 06:32 PM
This strikes me as exceptional photography for its era. Almost surreal in feeling. I want to know more about Morrison and see more images!
Posted by Felicity Blundon on October 19,2009 | 06:49 PM
In the late 40s I worked in a local grocery story in Ely, Nevada, bagging (or, rather, boxing) for customers, and stocking shelves. One day an attractive young woman came into the store and began to order, what turned out to be, a two month supply of grub. It turned out that she was a bounty hunter going after mountain lions and coyotes. Sorry, no photo to provide for proof.
Posted by Dave Shaver Sr on October 19,2009 | 01:28 PM
Donna: Thank you so much for this article about R.C.Morrison. I really enjoyed your viewpoint and background information on the photo's. Wish you could have included a photograph of him.
Posted by Danial Morrison on October 16,2009 | 03:48 PM
Donna: What an exciting treasure trove. Thank you and Lory and staff for bringing these fascinating images to light. And thank you for describing them in such a piquant way. I, too, am looking forward to the book.
Posted by Clem Work on October 15,2009 | 07:00 PM
Donna -
What a gold mine of content that transcends history to become art! I do hope that this will be your next book project. These photographs are an important part of our quirky heritage as Americans. Morrison should definately be included in the canon of photography and you're the one who could do him justice. You're interpretation of the images are as fascinating as the photographs.
Posted by Mary Motley Kalergis on October 15,2009 | 06:12 PM
Your interpretations of these images are far more than photo captions. Each is an insight into the artistic eye of Robert Morrison with your relish for history and a dash of humor. I only wish that you and Robert and Evelyn Cameron could have sat down for a chat back then. So instead please continue to keep us all inthralled and point out those subtle nuances in the photos that we might have missed. Three Cheers!
Posted by Kate Davis on October 10,2009 | 06:40 PM
Thank you for these. I love the attention you paid to the details of each photograph and to the historical background. The "Savages" print, in particular, was at once heartbreaking and not cliched in the way I had at first expected. The ironies you point out are haunting.
Posted by Brendan Wolfe on October 10,2009 | 09:17 AM
Donna - Does this portend another book? As a born-in-eastern Montana guy, I hope so. Your gift of narrative - with history, humor and pithy quotes - illuminates these images. These are the people Evelyn Cameron didn't photograph - and they are the flip side of her legacy. Montana history (western history) is only complete with both sides of the coin. Thank you for your fine work to help us know whence we come.
Posted by William Marcus on October 9,2009 | 06:29 PM
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