Gift of Mildred Bloys Nored, 2015 (15-05-031-G)
Open for research. Please note: Negatives cannot be accessed without curatorial approval. To make an appointment or to reserve photography materials, please contact the Center's staff at photography@hrc.utexas.edu.
The collection is comprised of 728 glass negatives made by photographer Nick Mersfelder (American, 1858-1939) of Fort Davis, Texas, during the 1910s and 1920s. Subjects include: Mersfelder, his house, and his friends; Fort Davis, primarily the military fort, but also residents, houses, the school, and the ground breaking for the new court house; ranches and ranch workers; church and school groups; funerals, agricultural scenes; family and church outings; children; Finley’s Cowboys outfit; camping, fishing, and hunting trips; the Big Bend region of Texas; and portraits of individuals and families. A small group of negatives are of unidentified scenes. Numbers listed are based on Mersfelder’s original negative numbers. Contact prints made by the Ransom Center from the original glass negatives are available for viewing. Also available are the original negative sleeves for each negative which contain captions and other descriptive information.