Exhibit features cowgirls
Photographs of Hall of Fame honoree featured in gallery

    The photography of a renowned 20th century photographer and National Cowgirl Hall of Fame honoree is the first traveling exhibit in the Featured Exhibit Gallery of the National Cowgirl Museum.

   Photographing Montana 1894-1938: The World of Evelyn Cameron displays the early days on the western frontier and the coming of the homesteads that changed the face of the land forever.

   The exhibit opens Saturday, Sept. 28, and continues through Dec. 29.

   This exhibit, organized by the Montana Historical Society, contains 47 of Cameron’s glass-nitrate negatives that have been reproduced.

   Her detailed diaries describe her personal feelings behind the images.

   In 1978, the negatives were brought to the attention of the public by author and historian Donna M. Lucey.

   Lucey eventually wrote a book that showcases Cameron’s photos and diary entries.

   “Through Evelyn Cameron’s photographs and writings, one understands what life was like in the late 1800s and early 1900s on a very personal level,” Jennifer Nielse, National Cowgirl Museum curator, said.

   “This is a woman who had a very privileged life in England, but chose to live a rugged existence in Montana because she had such a deep connection with nature and the land.

   “Her pioneering photographs not only captured the early pioneers of Montana, but also landscapes, the wildlife, the cattle and everyday tasks of ranching and farming,” she said.

   Cameron’s photography is considered an achievement not only because she was a woman who captured the wilds in Montana, but also because she used a modern, natural environmental style in her photography.

   To get the picture she wanted, she would carry her tripod, eight-pound camera, glass plates and camping equipment and spend days by herself riding horseback on the frontier.

   A champion of women’s rights, she defended a woman’s choice to wear practical clothes. She was once threatened with arrest if she rode through Miles City in a divided skirt.

   Cameron was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum’s Hall of Fame in November 2001.

   The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is the only museum in the world that honors women of the American West. The new 33,000 square-foot museum and hall of fame opened in June.