The Books and Photographs of Elsa Spear
[Sheridan, Wyo. 1987]: The Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association. First Edition. Oblong Octavo. Item #028813
First printing. 83 pages, issued in a small, limited edition, this is. No.20 and signed by the author. (unspecified limitation). A card laid in is from Mary Ellen McWilliams of the Association. She writes that Elsa had only one copy left and so did the Bozeman Association, so this copy came in just under the wire. Born in Big Horn, Wyoming, in 1896, Elsa Spear has been taking photographs and making prints of western scenery and personalities in southeastern Montana and northern Wyoming for over sixty years. She was first introduced to photography as a teenager by her mother, but by 1923 she had entered the world of commercial photography, selling her pictures to national magazines and the promotion departments of the Northern Pacific and Burlington railroads. Although she is best known for her landscape views taken in the Big Horn Mountains, Byron also took many photographs of Indians over the years, especially on the Crow Reservation. The Byron photos in this article are part of a traveling exhibition of her Indian photographs, taken between 1911 and 1936, to be shown this year in Montana and Wyoming. A fine copy in fine pictorial dust jacket.
Price: $275.00