by Christy Eckerle
Photo Editor for Montana
The Magazine of Western History
These days, it’s easy to find information. Just type a
question into Google’s search bar, and within less than a second, answers appear.
But what if the information you need is from 1880, and it’s contained in
acid-free boxes in our archives? How do you find it then?
 |
Lot 35, Bud Lake & Randy Brewer Crow Collection. "Crow's Child or (Pappoose)."
[Studio portrait of young Crow girl with dog]. Photograph by O. S. Goff, Fort Custer, Montana.
|
Archivists work behind-the-scenes for hours—sometimes days
or weeks—to
make historic documents findable. Take, for example, contract archivist Sue
Jackson. She has spent the last few months arranging about two thousand
historic photographs of Crow people, places, and events and putting them in
acid-free sleeves. Next, she’ll give every photo a catalog number. Then, she’ll
catalog the entire collection, meaning that she’ll type a description of every
photo—all
two-thousand—including the photographer, date, subject, and title. After
Jackson finishes describing each photo, the information, known as a catalog
record, will be uploaded to our MHS online catalog
and to OCLC, where it will be available through WorldCat. Jackson expects the final catalog
records to go online sometime around January 2017.
 |
Lot 35, Bud Lake & Randy Brewer Crow Collection Throssel #T116
"In the Tobacco fields (note: Medicine Crow 4th from right facing camera)"
1906-1911. Photograph by Richard Throssel
|
Once the catalog records have been uploaded to our catalog, you can
type a search and locate a photo in seconds. To actually see the photos, you’ll
still need to visit our Research Center Photograph Archives, or, for a small
fee, you can order
a print or scan. Thanks to Jackson’s meticulous cataloging, you won’t have
to sift through all two thousand photographs to find the one you want.
 |
Stereograph Collection – Rinehart
"Spotted Jack Rabbit," 1900.
Photograph by F. A. Rinehart, Omaha, Neb.
|
The photographs that Jackson is cataloging came to us from
collector Bud Lake, who spent over thirty years buying historic photograph of
Crow people from dealers, shows, and even eBay. By the time he was done, his
collection held photographs dated from 1880 to 1940. There are portraits of
people wearing their regalia, photographs of Crow fairs, and images that show
early reservation life. Lake plans to use some of the photographs to illustrate
a biography of Crow chief Plenty Coups, forthcoming from the Montana Historical Society Press. But in
the meantime, Lake has done the world a service by entrusting those photographs
to us. Gradually, we’re making them available to you.
The moral of the story is that historic
documents—including photos—belong in public archives, where heroes like Sue
Jackson will make them accessible. Then, they can be found and used by
historians, students, or anyone else who has an interest in the past.
