From time to time, questions and requests from scholars and the public come into the Luther Bean Museum (LBM) regarding the collections. During my internship I was able to field two such requests for information regarding our photographic collections. To fill these requests I made digital scans of the photographs, adding the scans to the digital files for the museum archives.

Biography of Lafayette Head includes photographs from the LBM collections

The first request came from the authors of a biography on Lafayette Head, requesting photographs from our collection for the book. We were able to provide photographs, a number of which appear in the book, and the authors donated a copy of the published book to the museum: The Life & Times of Lafayette Head: Early Pioneer of Southwest Colorado.”

The second request was for historic photographs of settlement in the San Luis Valley, Colorado for the television program called “Discovery Road.” I enjoyed looking through our collections of photographs, searching for those that would show a wide view of that early life via people engaged in activities. Among many others, I located photographs depicting ranching, a chuck wagon, and cattle branding c. 1900; the third annual Ski-Hi Stampede rodeo of 1921, horse and buggy racing c. 1900, and a 1921 stock show; potato farming, hay stacking, a 20 mule team c. 1900, and the c. 1926 San Luis Valley Pure Seed Show; artesian wells of 1889 and c. 1920 complete with people in the dress of those times; logging c. 1900, and spinach washing and harvesting ice in the Rio Grande from 1928. It was wonderful and edifying to see such a variety of photographs of early life in the San Luis Valley, Colorado.