Evelyn Cameron (* 26. August 1868 in Furzedown Park bei Streatham, England, † 26. Dezember 1928 in Terry, Montana) war eine aus Großbritannien stammende, US-amerikanische Fotografin und Tagebuchschreiberin, die ab den späten 1890er Jahren bis in die 1920er Jahre hinein ihr Leben als Pionierin in der Nähe von Terry, Montana, in Bild und Text dokumentierte. Bekannt geworden ist sie – erst nach ihrem Tod – vor allem durch ihre Fotografien, die das Leben weißer Siedler in Ost-Montana darstellen.
Lebensweg
BearbeitenEvelyn Jephson Flower wurde in eine wohlhabende Kaufmannsfamilie in Furze Down, südlich von London, geboren. Sie war das achte Kind aus der zweiten Ehe ihres Vaters, Phillip William Flower, mit Elizabeth Jephson. Evelyn hatte drei überlebende ältere Brüder (darunter Percy und Alec) und eine ältere Schwester. Dass ihr Vater als Kaufmann erfolgreich war, sicherte der Familie einen Platz in der Oberschicht der britischen Gesellschaft.[1]. Evelyn Flower erhielt die für „höhere Töchter“ damals übliche Ausbildung; sie sprach Italienisch, Deutsch und Französisch. Sie und ihre Schwester Hilda wurden zu Hause von einer französischen Gouvernante erzogen, und dank der Tätigkeit ihrer Mutter als Komponistin erhielten sie auch eine musikalische Ausbildung.[2]. Evelyns Halbbruder Cyril Flower (1843–1907) wurde im Jahr 1892 Lord Battersea.[3]
Evelyn Flowers späterer Ehemann Ewen Somerled Cameron (*1854 –†1915), erster Sohn von Reverend Allan Gordon Cameron, war ein Schotte, der auf den Orkney-Inseln lebte und sich vor allem der Ornithologie, der Jagd und dem Reitsport widmete. Er war ein Freund der Familie Flowers und Jagdgefährte von Evelyns ältestem Bruder, Percy Flower. Seine Familie war adelig, aber wirtschaftlich verarmt.[4]
Ewen Somerled Cameron war mehr als zehn Jahre älter als Evelyn und zudem seit Januar 1881 mit der amerikanischen Opernsängerin Julia A. Wheelock (Guilia Vlada) verheiratet. Ihre Ehe wurde durch den Court of Session in Edinburgh am 17. Oktober 1889 anulliert.
Ewen Cameron und Evelyn Flowers unternahmen ihre erste Reise nach Montana im Jahr 1889. Sie erreichten New York City im September 1889, kurz nach Evelyns einundzwanzigstem Geburtstag, und einen Monat vor der Auflösung von Ewen Camerons Ehe mit Julia A. Wheelock.[5] Evelyns Familie missbilligte ihre Reise nach Amerika mit einem verheirateten Mann; aber dadurch, dass Evelyn eine größere Geldsumme von ihrem schon 1871 oder 1872 verstorbenen Vater Phillip William Flower geerbt hatte, war sie finanziell unabhängig von ihrer Herkunftsfamilie.[6]
Auf den Spuren von Evelyns Bruder Percy, der westlich von Miles City (Montana) gejagt hatte,[7] ging das Paar vom 1. November 1889 bis zum 1. August 1890 entlang des Yellowstone River auf Jagd. Ewen Cameron und Evelyn Flowers heirateten wahrscheinlich im Herbst 1889.[8] Ihre zehnmonatige Jagdreise betrachtete Evelyn als ihre Flitterwochen.[9]
Im November 1889 wurde Montana ein Bundesstaat der USA.
Nachdem das Paar nach Großbritannien zurückgereist waren, um ihre Habe zu holen, wanderten die Camerons schließlich im September 1891 in Begleitung von Evelyns Bruder Alec nach Montana aus und gründeten dort ihre erste Ranch.[10] Im Laufe der Jahre lebten die Camerons auf drei verschiedene Ranches in der Gegend um Terry, Montana. Sie versuchten sich zunächste in der Aufzucht von Polo-Ponys[11] und der Rinderzucht. Der Aufbau einer eigenen Ranch wurde durch eine Erkrankung Ewen Camerons und eine einjährige Rückkehr nach Großbritannien vom Sommer 1900 bis 1901 unterbrochen.[12]
Da die Polo-Pony-Zucht wirtschaftlich keinen Erfolg hatte und ihr ererbtes Vermögen mittlerweile deutlich geschrumpft war, erschloss Evelyn Cameron andere Erwerbsquellen: Sie baute Gemüse an und vermietete Wohnraum.[13] Bald begann sie auch, durch ihre Fotografie Einnahmen zu erzielen.
Die Technik des Fotografierens lernte Evelyn etwa 1894 durch einen Mitbewohner auf ihrer Ranch: ein Ire namens Mr. Adams unterwies Evelyn in den Grundlagen der Glasplattenfotografie. Ihm folgte ein Brite namens Mr. Colley, der Evelyn dabei unterstützte, ihre Fototechnik zu verfeinern, indem er mit ihr verschiedene Verschlusszeiten und Entwicklungsmethoden erprobte.[14]. Im Juli 1894 kaufte Ewen ihre erste Kamera.[15] Schon bald wurde Evelyn angefragt, um zum Beispiel bei öffentlichen Versammlungen und Hochzeiten zu fotografieren, sowie Familienporträts und – auf Bitten ihres Mannes – Wildtiere aufzunehmen. In einem Artikel mit dem Titel „Sheep in Montana“ (Schafe in Montana) aus dem Jahr 1905, den sie für The Breeder's Gazette in Chicago schrieb und der ihre Fotografien von umliegenden Schafsfarmen enthielt, wurde sie als Autorin und Fotografin namentlich genannt.[16]
Etwa 1893 begann Evelyn Cameron mit dem Tagebuchschreiben, und setze es in den nächsten etwa 35 Jahren bis zu ihrem Tode fort.[17]
Im Jahr 1914 erkrankte Ewen an einen Gehirntumor und musste zur Behandlung nach Pasadena (Kalifornien). Er starb 1915 und wurde in Kalifornien beerdigt.[18]
Nach dem Tod ihres Mannes lebte Evelyn allein auf ihrer Ranch.[19] Am 9. April 1918 erhielt Evelyn Cameron die US-amerikanische Staatsbürgerschaft und nahm im November 1918 erstmals an Wahlen teil.
Evelyn Cameron war 60 Jahre alt, als sie am 26. Dezember 1928 starb. Sie war zuvor erfolgreich wegen einer Blinddarmentzündung operiert worden, als sie überraschend an einem Herzinfarkt starb. Sie wurde in Terry, Montana, beerdigt.
Evelyn Cameron erlangte größere Bekanntheit erst lange nach ihrem Tod, in den späten 1970er Jahren, vor allem durch die Arbeit von Donna Lucey, einer ehemaligen Redakteurin von Time-Life-Büchern. Lucey entdeckte tausende von Camerons Abzügen und Negativen, zusammen mit ihren Tagebüchern und Briefen, die sechsunddreißig Jahre ihres Pionierinnenlebens abdeckten, im Keller des Hauses von Camerons Freundin, Janet Williams.[20] Nach intensivem Studium der Fotos und Dokumente schrieb Lucey eine Biografie, (Photographing Montana 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron), in der mehr als 170 Bilder von Cameron reproduziert werden.
Der Großteil ihrer Fotografien werden heute in der Montana Historical Society in Helena, Montana, aufbewahrt. Einige Abzüge und Gegenstände aus Camerons Besitz sind auch im Evelyn-Cameron-Museum in Terry, Montana, ausgestellt.
Quellen und Literatur
Bearbeiten- D'Ambrosio, Brian, „The Evelyn Cameron Gallery. Remembering a True Pioneer“, in: Distinctly Montana, 03. September 2020, https://www.distinctlymontana.com/evelyn-cameron-gallery
- footnoteMaven, No Place For A Lady?, in: Shades of the Departed, 15. März 2008, http://www.shadesofthedeparted.com/2008/03/no-place-for-lady.html
- Hager, Kristi, Evelyn Cameron: Montana’s Frontier Photographer, Farcountry Press, 2007, ISBN 9781560374657
- Lucey, Donna M., „Photographing Montana, 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron“. New York, 1990, Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0394540360.
- Milne, Lorna, „Evelyn Cameron: Photographer on the Western Prairie“. Missoula Montana, 2017, Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0878426751
- Otto, Kathryn, Evelyn J. Cameron and Ewen S. Cameron papers, 1893-1929, Biographical notes, in: Archives West, Orbis Cascade Alliance, http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv71834
- Roberts, Ann; Wordsworth, Christine, „Divas, Divorce, and Disclosure: Hidden Narratives in the Diaries of Evelyn Cameron“, in: Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Sommer 2014, http://montanawomenshistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/46-62RobertsSum2014.pdf
- Sonstegard, Viki, „Evelyn J. Cameron: Rugged Outdoors-woman and Photographer“, in: Women Out West: Art on the Left Coast, 30. Juni 2016, http://womenoutwest.blogspot.com/2016/06/
- Van Genderen, Kate, „Evelyn Cameron: a study in three parts of her photography, diary, and life in Montana“, 05. September 2017, https://dspace.library.uvic.ca//handle/1828/8546
- Wishart, David J. (ed.), „Cameron, Evelyn (1868-1928)“, in: Encyclopaedia of the Great Plains, http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.art.011
- [ohne Autorenangabe], »Evelyn Cameron. Birth: 1868 (Furze Down Park, England). Death: 1928 (Glendive, Montana)«, https://www.cartermuseum.org/artists/evelyn-cameron
- [ohne Autorenangabe], „Evelyn Cameron 1868–1929 Pioneer photographer, diarist, and rancher“, in: Montana Historical Society, (CW 6520), https://mhs.mt.gov/education/Montanans/ECameron.pdf
- [ohne Autorenangabe], „The Evelyn Cameron Story“, in: Evelyn Cameron Heritage, Inc., https://www.evelyncameron.org/evelyn-cameron/
- [ohne Autorenangabe], Photographic Legacies of Evelyn Cameron and Julia Tuell, in: Women's History Matters, 10. Dezember 2013, http://montanawomenshistory.org/photographic-legacies-of-evelyn-cameron-and-julia-tuell/
Weitere Quellen und Info-Material
Bearbeiten- Englische Wikipedia, „Evelyn Cameron“, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Cameron
- Auktionshaus Bonhams, https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/18381/lot/1273/
- WorldCat Identities, „Cameron, Evelyn 1868-1928“, http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n88283580/
- PraBook Biographical Encyclopedia, https://prabook.com/web/evelyn.cameron/2429390
Rohstoffe
BearbeitenCyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Flower,_1st_Baron_Battersea
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»As newlyweds, in 1889, they rejected their insular English gentility to claw out a minuscule place in an unfathomably vast universe. After traveling approximately 1,800 miles of mystery and, at times, misery, the couple arrived in eastern Montana, along with a cook and even one of Custer’s former scouts as a paid guide. They settled around Miles City and Terry, though only briefly. In 1890, they returned to the U.S., and this time Montana would become their permanent home. They hoped to raise polo ponies from Arabian stallions for the European market, but that type of effort could not yield a profit. They initially lived off the largesse of Evelyn’s trust fund, yet that reserve soon dwindled. It was a hard time for the British expats, requiring their strictest adaptability. [...] Evelyn began by planting a large garden and selling vegetables. She constructed her own fence posts and reduced the slack in her own barbed wire; she made bread about once a week, on average, seven loaves each time. Still, hard work does not always translate into real income. After her business plan to take in wealthy boarders failed, and Ewen foundered at his attempts to raise cattle, Evelyn kicked her industriousness into overdrive—and the creative saga starts there. In about 1894, Evelyn taught herself the brass tacks of photography while using a dry-plate glass negative Kodak. Despite the availability of cheaper, quicker methods [...] She charged “$2 for a family portrait” and traveled the wide, strong landscape soliciting business. By 1902, she had a photographic “calling card” and repeat customers, and by the end of the summer of that year “she’d made $94.40 selling photographs,” according to one source. She developed them on five-by-seven-inch glass-plate negatives and printed them in a makeshift darkroom. By the summer of 1904, she was staying up into the early morning hours to complete her orders.
Evelyn’s hundreds of letters and handwritten journals, starting in 1893 and kept for approximately 40 years, give us an insight into the rustic side of life in those days [...] Evelyn depicted the transformation of Montana—granted statehood on November 8, 1889—and the development of its prairies and the cultivation and expansion of its land. [...] From 1893 to 1900, Evelyn and Ewen rented a three-room log cabin with a stone foundation, six miles south of Terry. While her diary emphasized that the money she had earned from her photography had kept the family solvent, she also stressed that she owned the burden of the gardening, cooking, and washing responsibilities. And on top of this, she wrote and illustrated magazine articles about the demanding effects of life on Montana ranch women. [...] After Ewen died in 1915, Evelyn remained, alone, at her ranch, writing a friend that she was “as busy as a one-armed man with hives.” On November 13, 1916, she bought another 40 acres in the Terry area at $3.55 an acre; $142 total. On April 9, 1918, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States and voted in that November’s election. She was 60 when she died on December 26, 1928, after an appendectomy. She had had a successful operation for appendicitis and was considered on the road to recovery when a sudden heart attack caused her death. [...] In 1978, Time-Life Books editor Donna Lucey learned about the collection of historic photos stored in the basement of 90-year-old Janet Williams in Terry; Janet inherited a fortune of plates and pictures and bound diaries that had been in the cellar of Cameron’s long-abandoned cabin since her death. «
- Brian D'Ambrosio, The Evelyn Cameron Gallery. Remembering a True Pioneer, in: Distinctly Montana, 03. September 2020, https://www.distinctlymontana.com/evelyn-cameron-gallery
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And when Evelyn and Ewen, her husband, arrived at what was to be their new home in Montana, there was no respite. (NB: Evelyn Cameron’s husband, Ewen, was English and something of an ornithologist – and by accounts, a ne’er do well and rascal.)
Shortly after creating a home in Montana, Evelyn began to document the life of a prairie homesteader in her detailed diaries. Her beautifully penned (and penciled) diaries
• https://www.evelyncameron.org/evelyn-cameron/
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Biographical Note
Evelyn Jephson Flower was born August 26, 1868, near Streatham, England. The Flower family was tied to England's elite--her half brother Cyril Flower became Lord Battersea in 1892. Ewen Somerled Cameron was born in 1854 in Scotland, to a genteel, but penniless family.
Evelyn and Ewen Cameron were married in the fall of 1889 and spent their honeymoon in Montana. Both were avid hunters and were lured to Montana by English magazines that boasted of the abundant wildlife, the ease of living on the plains, and the fiscal rewards of polo pony raising. The Camerons moved to Montana in 1893 and established the Eve ranch near Terry to breed and train polo ponies. The horse breeding venture proved disasterous, however, as the ponies were difficult to transport--many dying on the boat to England. The animals that survived the trip were too wild for English riders who were not accustomed to "breaking" horses. Although Evelyn's family provided her with an annual allowance, the Cameron's were unable to make a profit and by 1897 were forced to abandon polo pony raising and find other sources of income. They took in wealthy boarders, who they tried to convince to invest in the ranch, and Evelyn sold her garden produce and photographs. The Cameron's took their first trip back to England in 1901, and remained for a year. In 1902 they returned to Montana and bought land outside of Terry near the Yellowstone River. They remained at that location until 1907 when they moved to a ranch near Fallon, Montana.
In addition to the polo pony business, Ewen Cameron was interested in Montana wildlife, especially birds. He became a noted ornithologist, with several articles being published in various British science magazines, including The Auk. He worked for many years on a book describing birds of the western United States. He was also a skilled and enthusiastic hunter.
Evelyn Cameron, in addition to her work on the ranch, took a keen interest in photography. In 1894 she purchased her first camera, and learned basic photographic techniques from one of her boarders. Photography served many purposes for Evelyn, it relieved some of the loneliness of living on the plains, provided much needed income, allowed her to work with Ewen on his wildlife studies, and provided an avenue for meeting and learning about her neighbors. She was especially fascinated with the strength and perserverance of the Russian-German immigrants. Her photographs captured the experiences of men and women on the plains of Eastern Montana in starkly vivid and candid terms. Cowboys, women, ranchers, farmers, children, itinerant workers, sheep herders, and the stark landscape all found their way into her photos. Her work was carried in magazines throughout the country. Unlike Ewen, whose wildlife interests took him farther and farther from the ranch, Evelyn was facinated with the ranching lifestyle. She developed close friendships with their neighbors, the Williams family. Janet Williams became her dearest lifelong friend, to whom she bequeathed all her diaries, photos and belongings after her death.
In 1914 Ewen Cameron became ill and had to be taken to Pasadena, California, to receive cancer treatments. He died the following year and was buried in California. Evelyn, contrary to the requests of her family, returned to Fallon to run the ranch by herself. She continued her photography for the remainder of her life. She died in 1928 following an operation for appendicitis. She was buried in Terry, Montana.
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~ No Place For A Lady? ~ “Manual labour . . . is all I care about, and, after all, is what will really make a strong woman. I like to break colts, brand calves, cut down trees, ride and work in a garden.”
~ Evelyn Cameron ~
Eastern Montana is a harsh place; flat, barren, hot in the summer, cold to the extreme in the winter, and sparsely populated. And that is the description of eastern Montana today.
Imagine what life was like in the 1800s. Can't? Neither could I until I read Donna Lucey's book, Photographing Montana, 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron, and traveled to eastern Montana to see for myself.
In the late 1970s, Lucey discovered thousands of Cameron’s photo-negatives stashed away in the basement of Cameron’s best friend, Janet Williams', crumbling home. Coated with over 50 years of dust and dirt were 1,800 glass-plate and film negatives, 2,500 original photographic prints, letters, manuscripts and Cameron's diary. The diary contained a volume from each year except one from 1893 to 1928 which meticulously detailed pioneer life in Montana. Cameron's photographs, together with her daily diaries, provide one of the most detailed records available today of life on the Great Plains. Those glass plate negatives and Evelyn's diaries became the basis of Lucey's book.
Eastern Montana
Two years ago my husband and I traveled to Terry, Montana, the hub of Evelyn's photographic work. I was disappointed when we arrived to find the Evelyn Cameron Museum closed. As we stood reading the sign on the door, someone walking down the street stopped and in typical Montana fashion, suggested we call the curator at her home. He was sure she'd come over and open up just for us; we called, and she did. I will be forever grateful, as it was a wonderful experience and really brought the book and the woman to life. You only had to step outside the Museum door and survey the area around you to envision the Montana of Evelyn Cameron, it has not changed that much.
Being honest, I could not live in eastern Montana, and how a well-bred Englishwoman in the late 1800s could, is beyond me. Fortunately, it was not beyond the resourceful Cameron. We know that because Evelyn left behind a legacy, a written and photographic record of her life that shows us the remarkable strength and ingenuity of this tough frontier woman.
Evelyn was born Evelyn Jephson Flower on August 26, 1868, at Furze Down Park, a rambling country estate near the small town of Streatham, just south of London. Her father, Philip William Flower, was a successful East Indian merchant. Evelyn was the fifth of six children born to his second wife Elizabeth. Evelyn also had nine half-siblings, born to her father's first wife Mary who had died in 1850.
Almost sixty when she was born, Philip Flower died before Evelyn was four years old leaving her the beneficiary of a fairly substantial trust fund that gave her an income of £300 per year. Wickham Flower, a London attorney and one of Evelyn's cousins, was the trustee for her inheritance.
Evelyn's half-brother, Cyril Flower led a very glamorous privileged life. Cyril became a barrister at twenty-seven having been educated at Harrow and Cambridge. He was considered the handsomest man of his day. His best friend was Leopold de Rothschild, of the banking family, and he married Leopold's cousin Constance. He became a member of Parliament in 1880, served as Whip to the Liberal Party and Junior Lord of the Treasury under Gladstone, and in 1892 was raised to noble rank with the title Lord Battersea. The Batterseas entertained on a grand scale and it is this life that Evelyn left when she married Even Cameron.
In the fall of 1899, Evelyn married Ewen Somerled Cameron, the first born son of Reverend Allan Gordon Cameron. Evelyn's family did not approve of her choice. We can only speculate as to their reasons. Perhaps because Ewen was fourteen years older than Evelyn and in poor health. But more likely was the fact that at the age of thirty-five, Ewen was without either an established career or a substantial inheritance. His prospects for success were limited.
Ewen was an eccentric whose great interest in life was wildlife. Prior to marrying Evelyn he had lived on a virtually uninhabited island among the Orkey Islands where he studied the habits of gulls and turns and amassed an impressive collection of stuffed birds. Ewen considered himself a scholar and scholars required the financial ability to maintain their pursuits. He had no such ability.
Evelyn and Ewen honeymooned in the remote badlands of eastern Montana Territory in 1899. They had come to hunt, a pursuit they both enjoyed. They were accompanied by an English cook and one of General Custer's old scouts as a guide. Montana had been recommended to them by Evelyn's older brother Percy, who had traveled up the Yellowstone to Miles City on a hunting expedition and told tales of the bountiful wildlife.
Miles may be traversed with never a sign of man nor a sound more civilized than the Falcon's angry scream.
~ Ewen ~
Ewen and Evelyn decided to leave London behind and settle in eastern Montana. The British newspapers were filled with stories of striking it rich in America and in Montana in particular. Evelyn had no regrets about leaving England; she could lead the outdoor life of riding and hunting she loved and leave behind her disapproving relatives. They decided to raise horses, as both were excellent judges of horse flesh. Ewen, unfortunately, had no business sense.
They moved to the Eve Ranch (named for Evelyn) with its crude three-room cabin constructed of logs and a stone foundation. Their attempts at raising horses on the open range had been unsuccessful. Ewen now decided to breed polo ponies for sale to Europe's wealthy sportsmen. He entered into a partnership with one of Montana's "cattle kings" and imported two exotic Arabian stallions.
The cost of ranching was more than the Camerons had expected. In one instance, Ewen had written a bad check he could not cover. Evelyn's cousin, Wickham Flower, was contacted to cover the shortfall, but it took a great deal of time to settle the matter between England and Miles City, Montana. The failure to resolve the matter quickly incurred a $1,000 penalty on the Cameron's partnership. Then the bank in Miles City, in which they had all their money, failed.
Again, Evelyn contacted Wickham and asked for an advance on her money. Wickham responded that no advance was possible. It was Evelyn's money, but because she was a woman, she had no control over it. Ewen, discouraged, wanted to return home. Evelyn wanted to stay. In an effort to remain in Montana, Evelyn started taking in wealthy boarders. This too was not a success. The boarders only created more work for Evelyn and often failed to pay their rent.
The polo pony breeding came to a disastrous end. The horses that didn't die in the railroad cars, died on the docks waiting to be shipped to England, or died on the long voyage aboard ship. Only two horses made it to England and their buyer found them wild and hard to handle.
Evelyn's next venture was raising vegetables for sale. She received no assistance in her business venture from her husband, as she had not with the boarders. She raised the vegetables, loaded hundred of pounds of her produce into wagons and drove over great distances to sell her valuable commodity. She sold to cook wagons on the range, cowboys in saloons, remote ranches and railroad section houses. It was a tiring day spent in the elements, but Evelyn could earn as much as $5.10/day (cowboys were making $30 - $45 per month).
Evelyn demonstrated the minutest details of her life through her meticulous diaries. The following is one of my favorite passages - a toothache so painful she finally had to do something about it:
“Ran wire round [tooth] . . . , her diary reads. “Hung by [wire] from rafter but it broke. Put stronger wire round the tooth, joined ends again to rope which [I] threw over rafter. Stood on trunk [and] let self down easy. This pulled the tooth out.” She describes running into the house to show her husband the tooth--and then, she writes, “Breakfast [I] got merrily.”
Evelyn's most successful money making venture was to become her photography business. She took up photography and took thousands of wonderful pictures of friends, neighbors, their children, and the wildlife of the high plains.
She was encouraged in this pursuit by one of her boarders and purchased her first camera by mail. She decided to wrestle with the intricacies of the dry plate glass negative, unwieldy, 5x7 Graflex camera at a time when most people were using the new smaller easier to handle Kodak film camera. She later purchased a No. 5 Kodet that was designed for 5 X 7 plates or film, as she liked the tonal quality of the plates.
Ewen wrote articles about Montana wildlife for publication that were accompanied by Evelyn's photographs. Evelyn wrote articles that she illustrated with photographs and sold her photographs to other authors.
Cowboys and passing ranchers stopped by the Eve Ranch to be photographed by Evelyn and she often traveled on horseback for hours or days to reach remote ranches or an eagle's eyrie to take a photograph. Cowboys and sheepherders were some of her favorite subjects as were the wildlife she adopted and tamed. She made albums as gifts for friends and relatives. For her professional photographs she charged per the number of prints ordered, with the caveat that the buyer be pleased with the photograph.
She was not an instant monetary success, as she had to keep going back to retake photographs until her customer was pleased. This required a great deal of time and photographic materials.
"Ewen posted photographic accounts & makes me $4.95 in the hole yet. Made $31. Spent 35.93."
~ August 4, 1899 ~
As I pay tribute to Evelyn Cameron, she also paid tribute through her photography to the oft ignored women pioneers she encountered. Those of us who search for bits of information regarding our female ancestors know historians and photographers would fore go information on these women in favor of their male counterparts, perhaps because so many historians and photographers were men.
As a woman, Evelyn brought her unique perspective to their struggles and accomplishments. Evelyn wrote an article in the June 6, 1914, issue of Country Life that illustrated the women whose company she sought and enjoyed. It was about the Montana Cowgirl and was illustrated with action photos of the Buckley sisters, know in the area as the "Red Yearlings" because of their manes of red-blond hair and their expertise as horsewomen.
All three sisters may be said to have been born in the saddle, and are accomplished in the incidental work of branding cattle, breaking horses and throwing the lass0. . . A book might be filled with their exploits and hair-breadth escapes when riding "broncos," Evelyn wrote.
The sisters became famous and were sought after by Wild West shows. Shy by nature they declined the theatrical life and an invitation to perform before Teddy Roosevelt.
Many of the women of Montana during this period are known to us today only through the extraordinary efforts of Evelyn Cameron.
Her beloved husband, Ewen, died in 1915 leaving Evelyn to run the ranch alone for the next 13 years until her death. Evelyn left the ranch and all of her belongings to her best friend, Janet Williams, who leased the ranch land and packed the Evelyn's belongings into her basement where they were discovered by Donna Lucey.
Janet Williams
"I wish I would lead a life worthy to look back upon," Cameron wrote not long after moving to Montana. "I am far out of the path now." How wrong she was and what an amazingly worthy life she led.
Sources:
Official Home of Evelyn Cameron and The Evelyn Cameron Foundation. Lucey, Donna M., Photographing Montana, 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron, Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana, 2001.
Wilson, Kurt, The 100 Most Influential Montanans of the Century. 43. Evelyn Cameron, Special for The Missoulian Online.
Remarks of Lynne V. Cheney, The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, November 2, 2001.
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Library and Research, Evelyn Cameron. Montana Historical Society, Archival Sources at the Montana Historical Society, Cameron, Evelyn and Ewen Manuscript Collection 226.
Prairie County Museum and Cameron Gallery, Evelyn Cameron Story, Museum Brochure. [Museum located at 101 Logan Avenue, Terry, Montana].
Photographs:
Evelyn Cameron, 1899 © Mountain Press Montana Landscape, Courtesy Mountain Press Evelyn - Eve Ranch - Courtesy Montana Historical Society Evelyn Standing on Horse - Courtesy Montana Historical Society Janet Williams - Courtesy Evelyn Cameron.com
- footnoteMaven, No Place For A Lady?, in: Shades of the departed, 15. März 2008, http://www.shadesofthedeparted.com/2008/03/no-place-for-lady.html
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When the Camerons left again for Montana in September 1891, Evelyn’s brother Alec accompanied them.
Einzelnachweise
Bearbeiten- ↑ Donna M. Lucey, „Photographing Montana, 1894-1928. The life and work of Evelyn Cameron“. Cameron, Evelyn, 1868-1956. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Pub. Co., 2001, S. 12–13
- ↑ Donna M. Lucey, „Evelyn Cameron: Pioneer Photographer and Diarist“, in: Montana: The Magazine of Western History, 41, 1991, (3), S. 42–55 JSTOR 4519403
- ↑ Kathryn Otto, Evelyn J. Cameron and Ewen S. Cameron papers, 1893-1929, Biographical Note, in: Archives West, Orbis Cascade Alliance, http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv71834; eingesehen am 25. Juli 2021
- ↑ Evelyn J. Cameron and Ewen S. Cameron papers, 1893-1929, Biographical Note, in: Archives West, Orbis Cascade Alliance, http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv71834
- ↑ Ann Roberts / Christine Wordsworth, Divas, Divorce, and Disclosure: Hidden Narratives in the Diaries of Evelyn Cameron, in: Montana: The Magazine of Western History, 64, 2014, (2): 55, http://montanawomenshistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/46-62RobertsSum2014.pdf
- ↑ Lorna Milne, „Evelyn Cameron, photographer on the Western prairie“, Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press, 2017, S. 1–2
- ↑ Lorna Milne, „Evelyn Cameron: photographer on the Western prairie“. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press, 2017, S. 3
- ↑ Kathryn Otto, „Evelyn J. Cameron and Ewen S. Cameron papers, 1893-1929, Biographical notes“, in: Archives West, Orbis Cascade Alliance, http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv71834; eingesehen am 25. Juli 2021
- ↑ Ann Roberts / Christine Wordsworth, „Divas, Divorce, and Disclosure: Hidden Narratives in the Diaries of Evelyn Cameron“, in: Montana: The Magazine of Western History, 64 (2), 2014, S. 47, http://montanawomenshistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/46-62RobertsSum2014.pdf
- ↑ Lorna Milne, „Evelyn Cameron: photographer on the Western prairie“. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press, 2017, S. 13
- ↑ Lorna Milne, „Evelyn Cameron: photographer on the Western prairie“. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press, 2017, S. 15
- ↑ Lorna Milne, „Evelyn Cameron: photographer on the Western prairie“. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press, 2017, S. 41–47
- ↑ Brian D'Ambrosio, The Evelyn Cameron Gallery. Remembering a True Pioneer, in: Distinctly Montana, 03. September 2020, https://www.distinctlymontana.com/evelyn-cameron-gallery
- ↑ Lorna Milne, „Evelyn Cameron: photographer on the Western prairie“. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press, 2017, S. 32–34
- ↑ Lorna Milne, „Evelyn Cameron: photographer on the Western prairie“. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press, 2017, S. 27
- ↑ „The breeder's gazette: a weekly publication devoted ... to the interests of live-stock breeders“, v. 47, 4. Januar bis 28. Juni 1905
- ↑ Brian D'Ambrosio, The Evelyn Cameron Gallery. Remembering a True Pioneer, in: Distinctly Montana, 03. September 2020, https://www.distinctlymontana.com/evelyn-cameron-gallery; eingesehen am 08. August 2021
- ↑ Viki Sonstegard, „Evelyn J. Cameron: Rugged Outdoors-woman and Photographer“, in: Women Out West: Art on the Left Coast, 30. Juni 2016, http://womenoutwest.blogspot.com/2016/06/
- ↑ Brian D'Ambrosio, „The Evelyn Cameron Gallery. Remembering a True Pioneer“, in: Distinctly Montana, 3. September 2020, https://www.distinctlymontana.com/evelyn-cameron-gallery; eingesehen am 25. Juli 2021
- ↑ Donna M. Lucey, „Photographing Montana, 1894-1928 : the life and work of Evelyn Cameron“. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Pub. Co., Januar 2001, S. ix–xi.