Name/Title
Print, PhotographicEntry/Object ID
95.23.1Description
Sepia tone photograph of four "mountain men," "Tennessee hill men - photo taken/ by U.S. Forest Service ranger/ early 1900s" hand-written in pencil on reverse, picture is likely staged. 8"x12" print attached to 11 1/2"x15 3/4" hard-paper board, c. 1940s.
Provenance:
Photograph taken in Tenn. by U.S. Forest Service ranger, hung in Forest Service office, Missoula, MT, gifted to Joe Kemp, 1951.In 1951 Joe Kemp was employed for the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. In that same year, he was assigned to work temporarlily with the U.S. Forest Service in Missoula, MT. The woman who was the public relations contact in the Missoula office had the "Mountain Men" photo on her wall, and it was already on the office wall when she arrived. The story was that a U.S. Forest Service employee had taken the photo somewhere in Tennessee. Kemp couldn't remember about the date of "1915" that is assigned to it, although several at ETHS think that seems too early, going by the mens' appearance.
Because Kemp was originally from Arkansas, he jokingly thought the men looked with some of his distant relatives and asked to keep the picture. When he returned to Denver, he took the image to a photo lab and had it reduced to postcard size and acutally used it as a postcard that he sent to friends. Within five years, he began seeing the image, minus the background, in a commercial context--as a poster with some funny saying attached, such as "You want it done when?" Kemp had no rights to it, so he couldn't bring any sort of legal action. He never wanted the image to be commercialized.Dimensions
Dimension Notes
Printsize: 11.5"h x 15.75"w