Charles 'Charlie' Edward Morris Post Card Collection of Cowboys, Cowgirls, and Native Americans
Chinook, MT and Great Falls, MT: (1895-1938). 448 postcards [9 cm x 14 cm] some have postmarks and messages. Overall, these are in nice condition. Rare. Item #10856
This is likely the largest collection of Charles Edward Morris (1876-1938) postcards that has been assembled in private hands. It was methodically acquired by two different noted Montana collectors over the course of two decades, and then combined. In 1890, Morris came West by way of Fort Worth, Texas, and in 1894 on to northern Montana’s Milk River country, where the young “Texas Kid” became a range rider. Around 1900 he acquired a small camera, and during the winter of 1903, after riding for McNamara & Marlow, a large stock outfit, Morris went to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where he took a course in photography. While there, he married Helen Schroeder and returned to Montana with his bride, settling in Chinook. From there, he began constant travel in a buckboard, visiting ranches to photograph families, babies, newlyweds, and dramatic western scenes, such as roundups, branding, roping. Charles Morris photographed working cowboys during the last great roundups of the open range, massive herds of cattle on a thousand hills, large flocks of sheep with their herders, Native Americans in their traditional adornments, and the last of the frontier military in the West.
"While photographer Charlie Morris preserved the macrocosmic West of Rugged mountains, roaring rivers and broad prairies, it is the macrocosmic West of daily range life that Morris made his major historical contribution. Though occasionally a viewer must take a magnifying glass to see today what Charlie Morris perceived with such acuity in 1895." - 'True Free Spirit: Charles E. Morris, Cowboy Photographer of the Old West' (p.xiii).
Price: $3,200.00