Cowboys of the American West

Almost 200 photographs make up this fine collection of images from the American West. Many are vintage black-and-white photographs; most are richly colored photos of modern-day ranch life and people by photographer Dudley Witney. The text is provided by B. Byron Price, executive director of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City. The first section of the book "Open Range," focuses on the post-Civil War period, when the cowboy emerged as a historical figure before being transformed by dime novels, Wild West shows, and journalists into the mythic hero figure we know today. The photographs show men at work, herding cattle, breaking horses, branding, dipping cattle for ticks, cooking food at the chuck wagon, bringing cattle to the railheads. In all there is the presence of the wide-open prairies under big skies. In the next section, "The New Order," the camera captures a different kind of imagery, richly colorful, with many different kinds of landscape - snow-covered rolling hills, summer meadows, buttes, mists hanging against mountainsides. In the accompanying essay, cowboy history moves forward from the 1880s into the 20th century. In the third section, "The Legacy," there is a series of photographs of ranch houses, some dating from the 19th century, ranch buildings, interiors and exteriors, vintage pickup trucks, hand-painted signs, cook houses, old and new. The accompanying essay follows the story of cattle ranching and cowboying into the mid-20th century. The book closes with a series of portrait photography, representing the men and women who currently live in the west and carry on western traditions. This is a fine and informative book, well worth acquiring for the Western American bookshelf.