Working Horses in Turn of the century Rural Southwest, Archive of 17 Photographs, Documenting horses, and mules use for transport, road work, and rural mobility. c 1910-20s

Working Horses

Photograph

Working horses archive documenting animal labor and riding culture in the American West and Southwest, circa 1910s-1920s, when horses, mules, and donkeys remained central to ranching, local transport, road work, and rural mobility. Before trucks and tractors fully displaced animal power, teams of draft animals graded roads, hauled loads, pulled wagons, and moved people and supplies across arid terrain where mechanical vehicles were still expensive, fragile, or impractical. The archive records that transitional world with men posed on saddle horses, teams harnessed for heavy work, and rural landscapes still organized around animal labor rather than gasoline power.

Photo archive of 17 silver gelatin photographs, each approximately 3" x 4", American West and Southwest, circa 1910s-1920s, with some later studio or processing marks visible on versos including San Antonio, Texas, and Colorado stamps. Draft teams pull grading or scraping equipment across dry, uneven ground, with handlers standing close to the harness lines and work animals grouped in pairs or larger teams. Riders pose on horseback near trees, corrals, ranch buildings, and open terrain; several men stand in rows with horses in front of a large building, suggesting an organized ranch, riding group, school, or work crew. Additional views include horses gathered in dusty lots, animals harnessed to wagons, lone mounts in open pasture, and broader landscape scenes with low hills, dirt tracks, sparse vegetation, and rural structures in the distance.

The archive preserves the everyday mechanics of western life before full motorization, when equestrian skill and draft-animal management were not recreational specialties but basic working knowledge. Its strongest value lies in the range of animal use present across the group, from posed riding scenes to active draft labor, allowing the material to speak to ranch work, rural transport, road building, and western identity in the early twentieth century. Light toning, handling wear, scattered soiling, minor curling, and occasional edge wear present; images remain generally clear and well preserved. Overall in good condition.

Item #23404

Price: $355.00