Creator Details
Growing up in Bonham, Texas, Erwin Smith knew he wanted to be a cowboy and an artist. The era of great trail drives was ending, and he was determined to document the open-range lifestyle before it disappeared completely. Smith gained experience by working on ranches and studying painting and sculpting at art schools in Chicago and Boston before he realized that the photographs he used as preliminary studies were works of art themselves. Between 1905 and the mid-1920s, he photographed ranch work and life in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, producing some of the best-known images of early 20th-century cowboy activities. The Carter holds about 150 prints by Smith, many gifted by Smith’s half-sister, Mary Alice Pettis, as well as 2,000 negatives on permanent deposit from the Library of Congress.
Artworks
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A close-up of some fast work. Bulldogging a steer, in an arena somewhere in the Southwest., 1915-1920
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S611.814
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A couple of Bar Diamond boys trying to manage a bronc. Bar Diamond Bar Ranch, Texas., 1906-1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.471
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A couple of Bar Diamond boys trying to manage a bronc. Bar Diamond Bar Ranch, Texas. [Actually Bonham, Texas], 1906-1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.194
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A couple of Bar Diamond boys trying to put the saddle on a bronc. Bar Diamond Bar Ranch, Texas. [Actually Bonham, Texas], 1906-1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.193
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A couple of cowboys trying to rope a bronc in the corral of the JA. JA Ranch, Texas., 1908
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.060
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A couple of cowhands and their mounts take a few minutes off for eating and relaxing out on the range. Bar Diamond Bar Ranch, Texas., 1906-1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.461
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A couple of cowpunchers pause to make cigarettes while working the range somewhere in the Southwest around 1907-1910., ca. 1907-1910
Erwin E. Smith
Gelatin dry plate negative
LC.S6.412
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A couple of LS cowboys skinning and cutting up a beef. Zack T. Burkett on right. LS Ranch, near Tascosa, Texas., 1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.131
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A couple of LS cowpunchers (Zack T. Burkett on left) examining the mail before returning to headquarters., 1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.109
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A couple of OR cowpunchers shoeing a horse in line camp down on the border between Arizona and Old Mexico. The Greene Cattle Company, with headquarters in Hereford, Arizona, had a spread in both Old Mexico and Arizona. The adobe line camp and chuckwagon, 1909
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.594
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A couple of OR cowpunchers shoeing a horse in line camp down on the border between Arizona and Sonora, Old Mexico. The Green Cattle Company, with headquarters in Hereford, Arizona, had a spread in Arizona and Old Mexico, with adobe line camps near the bor, 1909
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.597
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A couple of Shoe Bar cowboys water their mounts in a river. Shoe Bar Ranch, Texas., 1912
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.303
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A cowboy and his "cutting horse" at work in a herd somewhere on the South Plains of Texas., 1906-1910
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S611.636
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A cowboy cutting animals out from the herd on the LS range., 1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.149
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A cowboy holding a herd on the Block range. Three Block Ranch, near Richardson, New Mexico., 1908-1909
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.245
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A cowboy mounted on his pony. Bar Diamond Bar Ranch, Texas., 1906-1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.459
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A cowboy of the LS staking out a night horse, by burying the knotted end of the rope. The cowboy is Zack T. Burkett, [foreman of the LS]. LS Ranch, Texas., 1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.112
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A cowboy on a cutting horse working yearlings out of a herd. LS Ranch, Texas., 1907
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.151
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A cowboy on his mount in the rodeo grounds at Chicago., 1920-1935
Erwin E. Smith
Gelatin dry plate negative
LC.S6.943
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A cowboy on his mount on the JA Ranch in Texas. JA Ranch, Texas., 1908
Erwin E. Smith
Nitrate negative
LC.S59.174