Figure 1.--One of the most important photographer's of the final years of the American frontier was Solomon Butcher. He is particularly note for his photographs of homesteaders on the Great Planes. This photograph of the Sylvester Rawding sod house, north of Sargent in Custer County, Nebraska. Butcher took the photograph in 1886. Source: Nebraska State Historical Society, RG2608.PH-1784.

No list of American photographers would be complete without Solomon D. Butcher. His work is an important source of information on families on the Western frontier, specifically the Great Planes. He worked for ocer 40 years and is best known for his work in Custer Country, Nebraska. Butcher was born in 1856 in what was at the time Virginia, but during the Civil War became West Virginia. Butcher's family moved west to Nebraska in the 1880s. It was at this time that homesteaders were carving family farms out of the Great Planes. He decided that he was not capable of that, but was impressed with the men and women who were. He conceived of the idea of creating a photographic history of thus effort (1886). He also found this was a good selling point to get Nebraska's thrifty homesteaders to buy a portrait of their family and homesteads. It was eventually published as a history of Custer County. Butcher took more than 3,000 between 1886 and 1912 leaving an ireplaceable historical records. He recorded a great deal, but probably nothing was more important than the record of the families and homestead. Not many Americans recognize his name, but many recognize his photographs.

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Created: 6:07 AM 8/3/2006
Last updated: 6:08 AM 8/3/2006