Title: Comanches in the new West, 1895-1908
First published: 1999
Description: Novelist Larry McMurtry received an unusual Christmas present some years ago - a photograph showing a demonstration of the then-new kerosene lamp to a mixed crowd of cowboys, soldiers, and Indians. To him, this image vividly captured the transition from the Old West to the New West around the turn of the twentieth century and led him to purchase the collection of glass plate negatives from which this print came.

Sensing that the collection contained a fascinating record of cultural change and survival, McMurtry loaned it to the University of Texas Press for further investigation.

With the assistance of Comanche expert Daniel J. Gelo and others, Stanley Noyes has identified the photographers, subjects, and settings of these thirty-two photographs. Most appear to be the work of pioneer woman photographer Alice Snearly and her brother-in-law Lon Kelley, who worked in the heart of Comanche territory in small towns on the Texas-Oklahoma border.

Noyes' introduction to Comanche history since the signing of the Medicine Lodge Treaty in 1867 provides context for the photos, which he also describes in detailed captions. A few images of Anglo settlers and towns complete the picture of life in Indian Territory at this moment of change.
Subjects: Comanche Indians, Pictorial works, History, Indians of north america, west (u.s.), Indians of north america, pictorial works, Indians of north america, history
LC classification: E99.C85 N68 1999