Faces of the frontier
Subtitle: photographic portraits from the American West, 1845-1924
By: Frank H. Goodyear III.
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press; In cooperation with the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Norman; Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 181
ISBN-13: 9780806140827
Subjects: Portrait photography -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century; Portrait photography -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 20th century; West (U.S.) -- Biography -- Pictorial works; West (U.S.) -- Social life and customs -- Pictorial works; West (U.S.) -- In art -- History
Genres: Biography; Pictorial works
Description: "Faces of the Frontier showcases more than 120 photographic portraits of leaders, statesmen, soldiers, laborers, activists, criminals, and others, all posed before the cameras that made their way to nearly every mining shanty town and frontier outpost on the prairie. Drawing primarily on the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, this book depicts many of the people who helped transform the West between the end of the Mexican War and passage of the Indian Citizenship Act." "Accompanying the portraits are an introduction and two essays that provide historical context and help frame their interpretation. Frank Goodyear explores how photography influenced Americans' understanding of the West by giving the region a face and by shaping public responses to western issues. Richard White questions the notion that these photographs accurately represent individuals and argues that the portraits' subjects participated in a process that idealized them as types."--book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.