5 things

[truepenny]

1. I started wishing for pictures in Son of the Morning Star with Captain Frederick Benteen: "In not a single photograph does he look formidable, not even very military. He appears placid, gentle, benevolent, with feminine lips and prematurely white hair. Only after contemplating that orotund face for a while does one begin to perceive something rather less accommodating. Embedded in that fleshy face are the expressionless agate eyes of a killer. One might compare them to the eyes of John Wesley Hardin or Billy the Kid. Now, this sinister absence of expression could be nothing more than a result of myopia, a condition afflicting him after the Oklahoma winter campaign of 1868-9 when he lent his protective goggles to a regimental surgeon. Still, in Civil War photographs, he has almost that same look" (Connell 30).

2. Custer with scouts in 1874. Bloody Knife, the man kneeling to Custer's right (viewer's left), also died at the Little Bighorn, and Connell spends a couple of pages discussing the fate of two of Custer's staghounds (who may or may not be the dogs in this picture).

3. Via buymeaclue, this lovely moment between horse and humans.

4. Thank you, dd_b, for pointing me to this article about the discovery of some OK Corral documents in a Cochise County courthouse. ETA: and thank you, swan_tower, for the pointer to the NPR article, which provides a few other bits of information.

5. I made bread this afternoon, which means the house smells yummy.

Comments

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why you're looking up the old west stuff, but I live out here in Montana, and not far from here is The Big Hole Battlefield. It is an amazing place and story, one I hadn't heard of until I moved here. It's a haunting place to visit: http://www.nps.gov/archive/biho/home.htm

If you wanted more info, I know one of the docents who works there.

Di

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Cool--thank you!

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

The old west stuff is interesting- you really can see the dead eyes...

[elmocho.livejournal.com]

Re: 4:

I work at the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records. I haven't had a chance to talk to the archivists involved, but we get a lot of OK Corral researchers, so this should be a draw. I've heard they are going to stabilize the documents and scan them into the Arizona Memory Project (http://azmemory.lib.az.us/) or "Amp," as they call it.

[elmocho.livejournal.com]

I was over there yesterday, and they had a sign reminding patrons that the documents were old, fragile, being preserved, and not ready for public display yet.