Elsa Spear Byron
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Elsa Spear Byron (1896 in
Big Horn, Wyoming Big Horn is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 198 at the 2000 census and 490 at the 2010 census. Geography Big Horn is on the eastern slope of the Big H ...
– 1992) was an American
photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...
. As a young child, she learned to help her mother make photographic prints from a plate camera purchased in 1900. Her photographs were sold all over the country and greatly enlarged prints were used by the railroads to advertise train trips to Wyoming. She lived in
Sheridan, Wyoming Sheridan is a town in the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Sheridan County. The town is located halfway between Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore by U.S. Route 14 and 16. It is the principal town of the Sheridan, Wyoming, Micropol ...
, in the same house for nearly 70 years until her death in 1992.


Biography

Byron was a first-generation Wyomingite, born in 1896, her ancestors all New Englanders and
Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
descendants. Her mother's parents left Boston in 1849 and headed west to Illinois,
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
and
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
, arriving in
Laramie, Wyoming Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was estimated 32,711 in 2019, making it the third-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne and Casper. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern ...
, in 1881. Elsa's maternal grandfather, G. W. Benton, was a medical missionary who was "trained as a Baptist minister, doctor and dentist". Her father, Willis Spear, arrived in Wyoming with his family in 1874 from
Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
and eventually settled next to Elsa's grandfather. Willis married his neighbor Virginia Bell Benton, and they settled on 260 acres (1 km2) near Sheridan in northern Wyoming. Elsa and her two brothers and sister grew up on a ranch that eventually expanded to include millions of acres of land, most of it leased from the government. When Elsa was two, her father and his family formed the Spear Brothers Cattle Company, which leased over a million acres (4,000 km2) of
Crow Indian Reservation The Crow Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Crow Tribe. Established 1868, the reservation is located in parts of Big Horn County, Montana, Big Horn, Yellowstone County, Montana, Yellowstone, and Treasure County, Montana, Treasure counties ...
land in
Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
along with a number of ranches along the Powder River and Clearmont. "They ran 57,000 head of cattle although the company only owned 36,000 head," she said. The rest were leased. Elsa and her siblings grew up in the saddle. The Spear sisters rode sidesaddle and went along on cattle roundups. When the severe drought of the early 1920s nearly destroyed the northern Wyoming cattle business, her father built a "dude camp", she said. The Spear-O-Wigwam is still operating in the Big Horn National Forest. The Spear family made regular trips to
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
so that Willis Spear could renew his land leases. They would stay in the capitol for six months, where they attended matinees after school and met famous actors, including John Drew and his niece, Mary Bordon. Elsa returned to Washington following her graduation from high school in 1914, where she attended the National School for Domestic Arts and Sciences, accompanied by her mother. There she studied the theory and practice of cooking "and all kinds of fancy work in sewing and millinery." But her main interest was photography. Two years later she married Harold Edwards of
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
, an office manager for the Sheridan County Electric Company. They built a house in Sheridan and Elsa took pictures of her children as they were growing up. She had been interested in photography since her mother bought a plate camera in 1900. Elsa remembered helping her mother develop the photographs in wooden frames which were placed in the sun. "You would lay back half of it to see if it was dark enough and close it up again", she said. "And we used blueprint paper so all you had to do was wash it with water." The pack trips to her father's Spear-O-Wigwam provided the petite photographer with endless picture taking opportunities. She made sixteen annual pack trips of two weeks' duration while her daughters were growing up, "and that's how I got my pictures from all over the mountains," she said. During one of the pack trips, "some dudes" named one of the Big Horn Mountain lakes for her, which is still recorded on Wyoming maps. When she returned home, she enlarged her pictures in her kitchen where she had cut a trapdoor in the ceiling to raise the head of the enlarger high enough to make huge prints by projecting them on the floor. Some of her photos include the Cheyenne Indian survivors of the Custer Battlefield, whom she photographed in 1926 on the battle's 50th anniversary. Among the Indians who posed for her at the battle site were
Red Cloud Red Cloud ( lkt, Maȟpíya Lúta, italic=no) (born 1822 – December 10, 1909) was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western ...
, grandson of the famous warrior, and Plenty Coups, a Crow chief. She also photographed many
Crow Fair The Crow Fair was created in 1904 by Crow leaders and an Indian government agent to present the Crow Tribe of Indians as culturally distinct and modern peoples, in an entrepreneurial venue. It welcomes all Native American tribes of the Great Plai ...
s from 1911 to the 1950s. One of her pictures was enlarged to eight feet in length in
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and used as background for an Indian camp display in the Cheyenne museum. Before the advent of color photographs, Byron tinted black and white pictures with oils and sold many of them to a number of outlets, including the Northern Pacific and Burlington Railroads. "My biggest thrill", she said, "was walking up the street in Chicago and seeing four of my big pictures framed in the window of the Northern Pacific office on Jackson Boulevard during the 1930s. "They did a lot of advertising and used a lot of my 20 x 30 inch pictures to try to get the dudes to come out here."Excerpted from ''Wyoming in Profile'' (1982, Pruett, ) by Jean Mead aka
Jean Henry-Mead Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jean ...
, pgs. 21–26.


Recognition

The
Big Horn Mountains The Bighorn Mountains ( cro, Basawaxaawúua, lit=our mountains or cro, Iisaxpúatahchee Isawaxaawúua, label=none, lit=bighorn sheep's mountains) are a mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana in the United States, forming a nort ...
' Lake Elsa got its name from Elsa Spear Byron.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byron, Elsa Spear 20th-century American photographers 1896 births 1992 deaths People from Big Horn, Wyoming Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductees 20th-century American women photographers