Born to Buck

a tumblr of archival objects documenting rodeo sports history, curated by Dr. Susan Nance

[borntobuck]

My book Rodeo: An Animal History is out with University of Oklahoma Press (thanks to everyone there!), so I’ve abandoned this tumblr. Soon I’ll be starting a new tumblr or two featuring sources and ideas from my current projects.

- Susan

[borntobuck]

Behind the scenes and in the stands at the San Angelo Fat Stock Show and Rodeo in San Angelo, Texas in March of 1940. To most rodeo people and spectators, this is what rodeo was - a series of common moments separate from the champions and winners lists.

Russell Lee took these and many other wonderful candid photographs in San Angelo on behalf of the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information. They reside at the Library of Congress.

[borntobuck]

Who is this man? Have you ever noticed how often the cowboy is portrayed with his face obscured? Sometime he looks at the ground and his face is obscured by the brim of his hat. Or sometimes he simply faces away from the viewer. Why have people wanted the cowboy to be so melancholy and mysterious?

This photograph "Working Cowboy" was taken in 1934, although the author appears to be unknown. It resides in the photograph collection at the Library of Congress

[borntobuck]

The bellowing steer was dragged backward, his foot securely roped. From an interwar oil painting by Ernest Fuhr that illustrated stories about women in ranching and rodeo. Once again, the steer, pony and lady roper were vehicles for stories about the west as a place of action and drama. This item resides at the Library of Congress.

[borntobuck]

Rodeo as a graphic design style supported the larger culture of rodeos (a tradition people across the continent appropriated from the Hispanic/Mexican cultures of the southwest) as tourism generators and a source of community identity. This was so even in places as far afield as Montana. Tommy's Ranch House "across from the fairgrounds" was one of countless businesses that depended upon rodeo days to stay afloat. This placemat and many other beautiful pieces of rodeo-themed ephemera reside in the Stampede Fonds at the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta.

* note that this item depicted a lady roper in a period-the 1940s/1950s-when rodeo people were purging women's events from the sport.

[borntobuck]

Cowboying it Up - was playing cowboy ‘a thing’ already by the 1910s?

“Fancy Cowboy Bit and Spur Outfit” by August Buermann of Newark, NJ. From show trade journal The Billboard, 1915.

[borntobuck]

Cowboying it up: “New and Flashy -- just the things every real stockman wants."

From The Billboard, trade journal of the show trade, 1937.

[borntobuck]

Even the work-a-day paperwork of many rodeos was written on beautiful stationary that advertised the show as it circulated through the mail and countless desks and pockets. Here, Cotton Rosser (later of the famous Flying U Rodeo production company, est. 1956) writes about the transfer of prize money after he and Buck Ruthford recorded some victories at the 1950 Calgary Stampede.

This and many other beautiful pieces of stationary reside in the Stampede Fonds at the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta.

[borntobuck]

Roped steer chased by a vaquero. Or perhaps this old image depicts a wild cow?

Republic of Texas two-dollar bill, ca. 1841. This image is from no archive but circulates on eBay and the web.

[borntobuck]

Last September someone told me: "In Utah, just about every yard has one of those model steers."

I suspect that for plenty of westerners, that's about as close as they ever get to rodeo or its creatures.

My photo, Montana 2016.

[borntobuck]

"Purpose steers are locked in tent for shipment," Denver stockyards, 1939.

Although they personified the reality of beef by the 1930s, Herefords were seldom involved in rodeo sports.

Herefords contemplating a Denver stockman. Library of Congress, 1939.

[borntobuck]

Where does one begin to factor a primary source like this into the history of rodeo?

Stampede Fonds, Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta.

[borntobuck]

Some equine context re: the rodeo bronc and roping horse of the 1890s. It was true that broncs and roping horses experienced little in the way of the tail docking or other vanity alterations city people imposed on horses.

Detail from the magazine of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Our Dumb Animals 24, no. 11 (April 1892), p. 121. This copy from the digital collections of the Hathi Trust.

[borntobuck]

This horse is stuck, but she still has agency.

“Horse inside stockade - looking barn made of pine poles in Sturgis, South Dakota,” ca. 1980-2006.

Carol’s beautiful photos are in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive at the Library of Congress.

[borntobuck]

“Bareback Bucker”

1940s Calgary Stampede scorecard featuring columns for “Rider” and “Animal.” These kinds of grading systems for horses, cattle, and people were a product of the standardization of rodeo events across the continent in the early twentieth century. This card also served as note paper, was folded up and stuffed in Dick Cosgrove's dusty pocket as he worked on the rodeo grounds.

This item resides in the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Fonds (collection) at the Glenbow Archive in Calgary, Alberta.

[borntobuck]

This is what the vast majority of rodeos have looked like over time, around North and South America. Small affairs run by local volunteers in temporary buildings and grounds. These rodeos did not generate the mountains of paperwork that the big, professional circuit shows did. Most of the rare and valuable records community rodeos did produce are not yet in a public archive, but reside in boxes and filing cabinets in people’s attics and home offices. 

If we could write a history of rodeo only from the records of these smaller, local events, what would rodeo look like?

I took these photos at the grounds of the Esk’et Rodeo in Alkali Lake, British Columbia.

[borntobuck]

“Crow Dog," and a white horse, who appears to be looking at the photographer. At least his/her ears indicate as much, no?

The archival descriptor for this image says: “Sioux Indian, full-length portrait, facing left, holding rifle, in front of horse, c1900, John Alvin Anderson, photographer.” But what it if said: "White horse wearing blanket and bridle, addressing photographer J. A. Anderson, ca. 1900, with Crow Dog in foreground"?

This item is housed at the Library of Congress.