Elsa Spear Byron
Encyclopedia
Elsa Spear Byron was a renowned photographer born in Big Horn, Wyoming
in 1896. 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
, in the same house for nearly 70 years until her death in 1992.
' Lake Elsa got its name from one of Wyoming
's most prolific photographers, Elsa Spear Byron of Sheridan. The energetic, multi-talented pioneer left her mark on Wyoming in other ways as well.
Elsa was a first generation Wyomingite, born in 1896, her ancestors all New Englanders and Mayflower
descendants. Her mother's parents left Boston in 1849 and headed west to Illinois, Kansas
and Nebraska
, arriving in Laramie, Wyoming
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
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 land in Montana
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 build 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 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 D.C. 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
, 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 if 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 opportunties. She made sixteen annual pack trips of two week's 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
, grandson of the famous warrior, and Plenty Coups, a Crow chief. She also photographed many Crow Fair
s from 1911 to the 1950s. One of her pictures was enlarged to eight feet in length in Denver and used as background for an Indian camp display in the Cheyenne museum.
Before the advent of color photographs, Elsa tinted black and white pictues 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, ISBN 0-87108-600-X) by Jean Mead aka Jean Henry-Mead
, pgs. 21-26.)
Big Horn, Wyoming
Big Horn is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 198 at the 2000 census and 490 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
in 1896. 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, Wyoming
Sheridan is a city in Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. The 2010 census put the population at 17,444 and a Micropolitan Statistical Area of 29,116...
, in the same house for nearly 70 years until her death in 1992.
Biography
The Big Horn MountainsBig Horn Mountains
The Big Horn Mountains are a mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana in the United States, forming a northwest-trending spur from the Rocky Mountains extending approximately 200 miles northward on the Great Plains...
' Lake Elsa got its name from one of Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
's most prolific photographers, Elsa Spear Byron of Sheridan. The energetic, multi-talented pioneer left her mark on Wyoming in other ways as well.
Elsa was a first generation Wyomingite, born in 1896, her ancestors all New Englanders and Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
descendants. Her mother's parents left Boston in 1849 and headed west to Illinois, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
and Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, arriving in Laramie, Wyoming
Laramie, Wyoming
Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 30,816 at the . Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287....
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
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
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 land in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
along with a number of ranches along the Powder River
Powder River (Montana)
Powder River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately long in the southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming in the United States. It drains an area historically known as the Powder River Country on the high plains east of the Bighorn Mountains.It rises in three forks in eastern...
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 build 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 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 D.C. 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
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, 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 if 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 opportunties. She made sixteen annual pack trips of two week's 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
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
, grandson of the famous warrior, and Plenty Coups, a Crow chief. She also photographed many Crow Fair
Crow Fair
The Crow Fair was created in 1904 by an Indian government agent to bring the Crow Tribe of Indians into modern society. It welcomes all Native American tribes of the Great Plains to its festivities, functioning as a "giant family reunion under the Big Sky." Indeed, it is currently the largest...
s from 1911 to the 1950s. One of her pictures was enlarged to eight feet in length in Denver and used as background for an Indian camp display in the Cheyenne museum.
Before the advent of color photographs, Elsa tinted black and white pictues 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, ISBN 0-87108-600-X) by Jean Mead aka Jean Henry-Mead
Jean Henry-Mead
Jean Henry Mead is an American novelist, award-winning photojournalist, historian and editor/publisher. She has also written under the names: Jean Henry, Jean Mead, and S...
, pgs. 21-26.)
External links
- The Elsa Spear Byron Collection Crow Celebrations