Gift, circa 1960s
Open for research, except as noted in Access and Reproduction Restrictions.
Rebecca Altermatt, 1997; Susan McClellan, 1998
The Hunter-Rose Collection contains images from
The collection consists predominately of photographs of the Old West and the Southwest, ca. 1850-1960s. The photographs taken by Rose date from the 1930s. Among the other photographers represented in the collection are D. P. Barr, A. A. Brack, and W. D. Smithers. Typical subjects featured in this collection include Indians, frontiersmen, cowboys, outlaws, and Texas Rangers, as well as Texas governors and other statesmen. Individuals represented in the collection include Jesse and Frank James, Judge Roy Bean, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, David Crockett, General George Custer, and Sam Houston and his family. There are also photographs of historical places and scenes, military forts and encampments, and towns in Texas and surrounding states, such as New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma. Among the Texas towns represented in the collection are Del Rio, San Antonio, and Washington-on-the-Brazos, as well as Bandera, home of Hunter's Frontier Times Museum. The collection also contains photographs and manuscript materials relating to both J. Marvin Hunter and N. H. Rose.
Both vintage and copy prints in a variety of formats are included in the collection. The formats range from cabinet cards, cigarette cards and cartes-de-visite, to panoramic prints. Among the photographic processes represented in the collection are albumen prints, cyanotypes, and tintypes, as well as both nitrate and safety negatives. In addition to copy prints of original daguerreotypes and other processes, there are photographic reproductions of drawings, paintings, and other works of art, some of which pre-date photography. The collection also contains postcards and original letters, as well as negatives of letters, newspaper articles, and legal, financial, and military documents.
The material has been left in its original order and is divided as follows: Series I. Identified Photographs (4 filing cabinet drawers); Series II. Unidentified Photographs (1 filing cabinet drawer); Series III. Oversize Photographs (2 boxes, 1 oversize flat file drawer); and Series IV. Nitrate Negatives (5 boxes). At the end of this finding aid are two indexes, one of correspondents and one of photographers represented in the collection. It should be noted that for most of the material the photographers have not been identified.
The folder list for Series I, which forms the great majority of the collection, reproduces the titles the creator/collector assigned to the folders in alphabetical order by subject. Note that a large segment is present under the title
The material in Series II has been divided into four subseries: People, Places, Various Subjects, and Written Materials. (The subseries Places includes interior and exterior architecture as well as landscapes.) There are two subseries in Series III: Oversize Items Removed from Series I., and Numbered Oversize Items. The Numbered Oversize Items are divided into People, Places, and Panoramics. The panoramics have been further subdivided into vintage and copy prints. If there are multiple vintage panoramic prints from the same negative, they have all been assigned the same number plus a different uppercase letter for each print. (For example, the number #35A-E indicates that there are five vintage prints from the same negative in the collection). The numbering of the panoramic copy prints corresponds to that of the panoramic nitrate negatives in Series IV. Since copy prints are not yet available for all of the panoramic nitrate negatives, the numbers of the copy prints are not consecutive.
The following abbreviations are utilized in the finding aid:
For more information on N. H. Rose, a publication entitled
For information on J. Marvin Hunter, please see "J. Marvin Hunter, personal journalist of the twentieth century," a 1957 thesis by Helen Anna Betty. (Call No. T1957 B466.)
The Hunter-Rose Collection contains large amounts of nitrate negatives, original prints, and copy prints. Patrons may access and research all of the original prints and copy prints; they are restricted from accessing the nitrate negatives. Patrons may request reproductions of the nitrate negatives and original prints from the Ransom Center. Those patrons who wish to obtain reproductions of the copy prints should direct their requests to the N.H. Rose Collection at the University of Oklahoma.
Contact:
phone (405) 325-3717
fax (405) 325-2943
http://www-lib.ou.edu/depts/west/index.htm