We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
This permanent exhibit at the Blaine County Museum displays a few of the post cards and photographs from the 1890-1910 era taken by photographer Charles E. Morris. As a cowboy Morris recognized the open range was quickly disappearing and photographed hundreds of people and places along the Hi-Line. Museum Director Sam French said the museum has some 1,000 images photographed by Morris at the turn of the century.
Justice Court employee Ritch Grimes checks the recently displayed photographs by "photographer of the open range" Charles E. Morris. The photos are part of a much larger display of Morris' work in a permanent exhibit at the Blaine County Museum in Chinook.
A couple of weeks ago about a dozen photographs by frontier photographer Charles E. Morris were hung on the wall across the hall from the County Superintendents Office on the main floor of the Blaine County courthouse. Jude Sheppard, the former Director of the Blaine County Museum, explained, "We had a gift from Chuck and Miriam Palm plus another private grant to purchase some of Morris' post cards that became available. With part of the gift we had some images Morris took enlarged for hanging in public places. Hopefully visitors to the courthouse will see the dozen photographs and come see the exhibit of Morris' post cards and additional enlarged photographs at the county museum in Chinook.
Morris, who left Maryland on foot at the age of 14, eventually ended up on the Hi-Line working as a cowboy. He worked along the Hi-Line from the 1890s until about 1910. For four winters he rode the train back to Wisconsin where he finished a college degree. Because of his educated command of language his cowboy nickname changed from "Texas Kid" to "Webster."
Early on Morris recognized that the open range that was supporting him and his fellow cowboys, settlers, native people and ranchers was disappearing. As land was settled and fenced, the open range began to diminish. Not only was the land affected by this change but also the people who lived on the open range. Morris set out to photograph how things once were on the open prairie as well as how they were changing. It's not clear how he learned photography, but one version is that he ordered a camera, had it shipped west and taught himself how to take photographs.
By the early 1900's Morris was working for the IX Ranch in Big Sandy. He made an arrangement with his boss so he could take photos while working as a cowboy with the foreman's warning, "so long as you do your regular work." By 1903 Morris had honed his photographic skills and a friend loaned him $300 to equip a large buggy as a photographer's studio-on-wheels. He became a full-time professional photographer and he and his wife, Helen, began their photography business.
Studio in Chinook, around 1903-1910
Processing photos out of a horse drawn wagon out in the wilds did not work well. Recognizing the need for a permanent photo lab and studio, Morris rented space on the top floor of B.F. Williams' drug store in Chinook (the building north and adjacent to the current Bear Paw Saloon on Indiana Street).
Color processing prints, in the early 1900's, was only available in Germany. A photographer would ship color negatives to Germany for processing. Morris's wife, Helen, herself a painter, had excellent skills in the photo lab. She was also adept at "tinting"-a process of adding color, with a brush by hand, to black and white printed photographs. Her skills allowed Morris to create 'colored photos' without the expense of sending plates to Germany.
Morris had an eye for business as well as photography. Somehow he connected with Charles Russell, the famed western painter of the same era, and began to put Russell's paintings on post cards. Likely the most famous post card depicts a starving steer and was entitled "Last of 5000" or "Waiting on a Chinook." Russell's wife, Nancy, herself entrepreneurial as she promoted her husband's art, attributed much of the increased demand for Russell's paintings to the post cards made by Morris that were sent all over the country and world.
The relationship with Charlie Russell and his wife also helped boost Morris' career as well. In 1904 Charles Russell encouraged Charles Morris and Helen to travel to St. Louis, where much of Russell's family still lived, and enter a photograph in the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exhibition. Morris entered a photograph of a cowboy on a bucking bronco and the photo won first place in its class. This established Morris as a serious photographer of the open range.
The winter of 1906-07 was disastrous in the region around Chinook, with many losses of livestock. Then in 1908, a flood hit the Hi-Line. Morris lost many of his photographs and glass negatives in the flood. He decided to move to Great Falls around 1910 and sold his studio equipment to A.M. Allison, another local photographer famous for his portraits of locals.
Morris closed his photographic business in the early 1920's, packed up his photographic equipment and photos and opened a sporting goods business. He died in 1938 at the age of 62.
To see more Charles E. Morris "open range" photos...
Visit the Blaine County Museum on Indiana Street just south of Chinook's downtown area. In the public bookstore you'll find reproductions for sale of some of Morris' famous post cards. The library also has a few limited copies for sale of "True, Free Spirit," a book by Bill Morris about his grandfather, Charles.
There are also a number of Morris' photos online at the "Montana History Portal." Go to: "mtmemory.org" and then in the database search line type in "Charles. E. Morris collection" and push "search".
