Prairie Visions: The Life and Times of Solomon Butcher

MID-AMERICA + THE PLAINS. 
Photographic Regional History. 

This slim yet full volume was one of those great finds, in that its full story was not immediately evident. The subject—the prairie in the late 19th century—and the collection of photographs within the book’s boards were enough to hook us. But then, there was much more to it. While researching and writing a novel to take place on the Nebraska prairie, author Pam Conrad came across a unique batch of photos of a very specific place in a very specific time: the early settlers and farmers on the plains. She made note of the photographer, Solomon Butcher, and even gave him an imaginary persona that made its way into her book. Several of Butcher’s photographs of families as best dressed as such hard scrabble living could allow, directly inspired Conrad’s characters in her novel, “Prairie Songs.” So it was quite to Conrad’s surprise that an attendee at a book event requested a signed book for Solomon Butcher’s daughter, by then quite elderly. It was enough for the curious author to bring out the real Solomon Butcher and his photographs in this subsequent volume … Butcher had learned the new art of photography in the middle 1800s. But it was not until settling in Custer County, Nebraska, many years after his family had made land claims in the mid-state region, that he put his artistic skills to use. Setting up the first photography studio in the then frontier county, Butcher began by taking portraits. But he soon took his studio into the field, taking pictures and portraits of other homesteading families on their actual homesteads. This is a terrific set of images from that very specific time and place. There are families arrayed outside in chairs before their rough-hewn homes, almost all of which were constructed of “Nebraska brick,” or thick sod cut and dried into rectangles. The subjects’ looks range from serious and severe to proud with even a few light-hearted smiles. There are the requisite images of frontiersmen, farmers in their fields, some funny staged frames of gunslingers, and even a section devoted to the early black settlers in the county. That this was hard living is at all points obvious. And yet, Solomon Butcher’s ability to capture the spirit behind the severity seems a rare gift to the future, in that he reminds us through the lens of a common humanity: Here are people having taken risks to scratch out as good a life as they can muster, a thing to which we can all relate. [Condition: Like New. At 30+ years old, this trim volume is in fantastic shape. A slight hint of creasing at the spine indicates it may have only even been opened a few times. Otherwise, there is not a blemish on it.] 

Condition: Like New. 
Personalities / Bios. 
Pam Conrad. 
Harper Collins, 1991. 
Hardcover (First Edition), 85 pgs, 10.25 x 8.25 " / 1.5 lb