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Acclaimed Western Photographers ~ George Beam

This gallery accompanies our biography of George Beam, the prolific Colorado photographer whose collection is held by the Western History Department with almost 3,500 images in the Denver Public Library's Digital Collections database.

Acclaimed Western Photographers

A Native American man stands next to a tuff cliffside with eroded holes enlarged by ancestral Pueblo Indians for dwellings and ceremonial spaces, Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico; became Bandelier National Monument in 1916.

Windows and bird nest holes show in the soft volcanic rock of a verticle tuff cliffside with natural caves, Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico.

View along a soft volcanic tuff cliffside with natural caves, enlarged to create living and ceremonial spaces by ancestral Pueblo Indians, Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico.

View of an enlarged entrance into a natural cave in soft volcanic rock, Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico; occupied by ancestral Pueblo Indians between the 13th (thirteenth) and 16th (sixteenth) century.

Volcanic tuff cliffs with natural caves enlarged to create living and ceremonial spaces by ancestral Pueblo Indians, Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico.

Eroded windows and bird nest holes show in the soft volcanic rock of a verticle tuff cliffside, Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico.

Soft volcanic tuff cliffside with natural caves, enlarged to create living and ceremonial spaces by ancestral Pueblo Indians, Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico.

View of a photographer with tripod and camera, and his subjects, Native American men, women and children, in Taos, New Mexico.

View of Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, during the San Geronimo Day festival; shows a crowd of spectators including Native Americans (Taos Pueblo) and whites. Many sit on adobe pueblo dwellings.

View of fields, snow, and mountains, possibly in Colorado.

Taos Pueblo Indians and tourists form a circle around dancers with a United States flag in the Taos Plaza, Taos, New Mexico. Native Americans (Taos Pueblo) are wrapped in blankets, the sightseers wear hats. Onlookers stand on porches or portals of enclosing buildings. A sign reads: "Post Card Views, Indian Curios, Kodak Finishing."

Snowdrifts and ice cover a stream in (probably) Colorado or Utah, with pine forest in the background.

Native American (Anasazi) Swallow's Nest House, at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, consists of stone walls built into sandstone cliffs.

View of the tunnel at Shoshone along the course of the Denver and Rio Grande Western railroad in Glenwood Canyon (Garfield County), Colorado.

View of Native American (Taos Pueblo) men at Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, wearing moccasins, breechcloths, and body paint, during a festival. They carry branches; adobe pueblo dwellings and white spectators are in the background.

View of a waterfall, possibly Cascade Falls, near Ouray, Ouray County, Colorado.

Denver and Rio Grande Railroad tracks pass between fields and hills, in (probably) Colorado.

Group shot of possibly President Harding and cabinet members on their 1923 tour of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The driver stands beside the long touring automobile filled with men, parked on at a lookout over eroded canyon cliffs. Emblem on door has a bear and reads: Y. P. T. Co. No. 143.

View of the San Geronimo festival at Taos Pueblo, New Mexico; shows Native American (Taos Pueblo) men wearing body paint and holding branches. White men and women watch from the side.

View of a sheep shearing operation in (probably) Colorado or Utah; shows men passing a bundle of wool, a tractor connected to belts and pulleys, sheds, penned sheep, and bags of wool. Mountains are in the background.

Gutted trout are arranged on burlap with a ruler; stools and a table are in the background.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, shows fast moving water deep in the riverbed carved in the volcanic rock of canyon walls.

Forest edges meadows, probably in Colorado or Utah; pine trees are in the foreground.

Trees, rocks, and fenced fields with mountains in the background, in (probably) Custer County, Colorado.

View of Trout Lake, in (probably) San Miguel County, Colorado; shows boats and surrounding mountain peaks.

Sandstone cliffs of Ruby Canyon, in Utah or Colorado, edge the Colorado River. Pinnacles comprise the "Three Sisters" formation.

View along the side of rustic 1904 Old Faithful Inn over a steaming Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

E. B. Allison operates Western Pacific track inspection motor car No. 26, in Feather River Canyon, California.

View southwest over Old Faithful Geyser to Old Faithful Inn, with steep gabled roof and a large rooftop observation platform with six flagpoles, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Tourists climb the terraces around the steaming geyser.

View of people riding horses on the valley floor between towering cliffs at Zion National Park, Utah.

Tourists walk across the Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge, Fremont County, Colorado, over 1000 feet above the Arkansas River. American flags decorate the tall towers for the dedication of the 1260 foot long and 18 feet wide bridge. Built by the Royal Gorge Bridge and Amusement Company in six months, dedicated on December 6, 1929.

A man sits in a touring automobile on Cody Road, along Sylvan Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; Top Notch Peak shows in distance.

A sign marks Grotto Gesyer, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; steam rises from the geyserite deposited on the top of trees.

Night view of the illumintated archway on Champa Street and Fourteenth, for the Knights Templar 32nd Triennial Conclave, Denver, Colorado. "Electric sunset and Mt. (Mount) of the Holy Cross. Over 60,000 candle power required to illuminate This electric painting. Rays of the sun and lighting effects on the mountain peaks are obtained from twelve search lights."

Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, shows the raging waterfall with a wooden stairway on a rocky cliff leading to a vantage point.

View of the Otto Mears toll road in Uncompahgre Gorge, Ouray County, Colorado; shows a man on a horse, power poles, and cliffs.

View along the Arkansas River and the Denver and Rio Grande Western railroad tracks, with the Hanging Bridge in distance, Royal Gorge, Fremont County, Colorado. Wooden Canon City water supply pipeline shows tunneling in and along the steep granite wall along river.

View of Tower Arch, a sandstone rock formation in Arches National Park, Utah.

View across Royal Gorge, bisecting Fremont Peak, of the Suspension Bridge, Fremont County, Colorado, over 1000 feet above the Arkansas River. Built by the Royal Gorge Bridge and Amusement Company in six months, dedicated on December 6, 1929.

View of men in coveralls (with goggles) and a biplane with letters: "U.S. Navy A-6391," as part of Oil Shale Day in Nada, Garfield County, Colorado.

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks pass through Eagle County, Colorado, by mile marker: "D307."

View of the Broadmoor Hotel and Lake in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado; the Italianate resort is reflected in the water.

Tourists come and go from the Soda Spring Pavilion, Manitou Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. The open air pavilion features decorative woodwork with sunburts, rusticated stone foundation, roof cresting, four sided dome with flag pole and fish scale shingles. Signs read: "Manitou Springs," and "Developing and Finishing Films and Supplies."

View of the Arkansas River Valley, Mount Princeton, and the Collegiate Range, Chaffee County, Colorado.

View of Bright Angel Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona; shows Plateau Point, Indian Gardens, and the Tonto Trail.

Trees and mountains are reflected in De Weese Reservoir, Custer County, Colorado; wide fields and the Sangre De Cristo Range are in the background.

Rocks, trees, and wide fields edge De Weese Reservoir in Custer County, Colorado; the Sangre De Cristo Range is in the distance.

View of a hotel in Kanab, Kane County, Utah; shows a man on horseback with an axe, men on the porch or balcony of the frame structure, and lettering: "Hotel Highway W. S. Rust, Proprietor."

Portrait of Native American (Taos Pueblo) boys by a ladder and adobe walls at Taos Pueblo, New Mexico; they play with a puppy.

Chamberlin Observatory, University of Denver campus, Denver, Colorado. Robert S. Roeschlaub, architect, designed the rusticated stone building.

A man, wearing a suit and tie, stands by a wide petrified tree stump. Pine trees dot an embankment in the background.

Soldier Summit, Utah, is a Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad terminal/switch yard covered in snow. Locomotives, freight and passenger cars, and cabooses are on the tracks, and men work picking ice from the switches. Passengers emerge at the depot; employee houses dot the hill to the side.

Self portrait of George Lytle Beam examining a glass plate. He wears a lab apron, striped bow tie, white shirt with wing-tip collar and his pince-nez eyeglasses.

A timber ladder provides access into a kiva structure under volcanic tuff cliffs, Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. The reconstructed kiva is built up with rock and has a rectangular entrance framed with timber. A natural cave enlarged by ancestral Pueblo Indians shows in background.

Men and women pose on the observation platform of the "Glenwood Canon" Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad passenger coach at Burnham Shops, Denver, Colorado. Ladies in bathing suits and conductor's hats pose with lanterns.

Belden mine complex and Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks flank the Eagle River, at Gilman (Eagle County), Colorado; mining buildings dot surrounding cliffs.

View of wide fields and distant hills in (probably) Colorado or Utah; cholla cactus and scrub cedar are in the foreground. Clouds include thunderheads, cumulus, nimbus, and cirrus formations.

Interior view of Native American (Anasazi) Cliff Palace, at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado; shows men in ties and hats posing by ruins of a round tower.

View of the Million Dollar Highway (State Highway 550), Ouray or San Juan County, Colorado; shows road grade, stone guardrails, a car, and a man.

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks on the Dotsero Cutoff follow the Colorado River in Eagle County, Colorado.

Women in high heels, dresses, skirts and hats pose on furniture inside a Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad dining lounge car, refurbished from a Western Pacific dining car, parked possibly in the Denver, Colorado railroad yards. Some of the women play cards. Interior design is Art Deco with arm chairs, sofas, tables, lamps, smoking stands and ornate metal wall partitions. Upholstery features floral and geometric motifs. Possibly taken during the Summer of 1939.

View of the eroded sandstone spires, pinnacles and fins known as hoodoos, Paunsaugunt Plateau, Bryce Canyon National Park (formerly Utah National Park) Utah.

View (from inside) of snow, a mountain, and a tracklayer vehicle, probably in Colorado. Interior furnishings include a ledge seat, pillows, and a flower patterned valance.

The Pine Crest Baseball team poses in front of the Palmer Lake Bowling Alleys, El Paso County, Colorado. They wear uniforms (caps, shoes with cleats, baseball gloves.) The catcher with his mitt sits front and center; players next to him have wooden bats. Possibly the coach or owner of the bowling alley stands in center back row. He wears a white shirt and striped tie.

View of Pikes Peak from Mount Manitou, Manitou Springs, El Paso County, Colorado.

The Pauline Chapel at the Hotel Broadmoor, El Paso County, Colorado, is a mission-style building with cupola, tile roof, ornate-carved stone door frame, and niche-sculpture of Saint Paul.

People crowd the Royal Gorge Bridge for its dedication in Fremont County, Colorado. A woman in a fur coat is by automobiles; United States flags and bunting decorate a dais.

Photo of a photograph of a builder's view of Denver and Rio Grande Railroad locomotive number one; sign on the cab reads: "Montezuma."

View of Royal Gorge Bridge construction in Fremont County, Colorado; shows steel pylons atop granite cliffs, with cable between.

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad construction in Ruby Canyon, (probably) Utah consists of men laying track over a concrete bridge, using a rail-adapted crane. Sandstone cliffs are in the background.

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad passenger train "The Scenic Limited" heads west in a blizzard at Soldier Summit, Wasatch County,Utah.

Men pose by the Lady Belle mine entrance south of Eagle, Eagle County, Colorado; one man shovels ore into a canvas bag.

A young woman fishes with a bamboo pole, in (probably) Colorado or Utah; she wears hip waders and stands in the river. Her outfit also includes short-legged bib-overalls and a straw hat.

View of Howard (Fremont County), Colorado; shows the Stout School (District 13), later the Howard Volunteer Fire Department, snow, and Twin Sisters Peaks.

View of the Colorado State Capitol building, Denver, Colorado; shows people standing by the Civic Center reflecting pool and colonnade, trees, and streetcars of the Denver Tramway Company.

A man stands on a projecting rock overlooking the canyonlands in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado.