HPPR stumbled across these photos that provide a magnificent look into the working lives of cowboys on the XIT, FDW and JA ranches in the Texas Panhandle, as well as other ranches in New Mexico over 100 years ago.
Slideshow: Cowboys at Work on Ranches in the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico, 1903-1904
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Photograph shows cowboys branding cattle on the XIT ranch in the Texas panhandle.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows cowboys on the XIT ranch in the Texas panhandle branding calves.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows cowboys on the XIT ranch in the Texas panhandle branding calves.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows three cowboys from the XIT ranch in the Texas panhandle with their horses. A herd of cattle in is in the background.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows two men on bucking horses.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows cowboys from the JA Ranch in the Texas panhandle packing their bedding while out on the range.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows cowboys tending a herd of watering cattle on the JA ranch in the Texas panhandle. To the left in the background is a photographer's wagon with a sign, "W. A. Harper, Special Photographer, St. Louis Exposition 1903."
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows cattle on the JA Ranch on the Llano Estacado (staked plains) in the Texas panhandle. In the background are a ranch house, two windmills, corrals and a barn.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows seven cowboys from the 101 Ranch near Dalhart, Texas, on horseback. A ranch house, outbuildings and corrals are in the background.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows cowboys from the JA Ranch in the Texas panhandle racing on horseback across a plain toward a chuckwagon.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows fourteen cowboys from the F.D.W. Ranch in New Mexico posed on a tree trunk.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photographs shows a group of cowboys from the JA Ranch in the panhandle of Texas seated on the ground eating next to chuckwagon. In background is a remuda and the photographer's wagon of W. D. Harper.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows cowboys branding cattle on the open range in the Texas panhandle.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows eight mule team harnessed to two wagons, probably in Texas.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows a group of seventeen cowboys posed informally.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows a cowboy riding a bucking bronco on the plains, probably on the XIT ranch in the Texas panhandle.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
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Photograph shows a cowboy riding a bucking bronco on the plains, probably on the XIT ranch in the Texas panhandle.
Harper, W. D. / Library of Congress
