Taos Pueblo South Pueblo- children
Wow Photo Wednesday
Today's "Wow" is a Horace Poley photo of Taos pueblo, that is part of an entire body of work that gets a "Wow."
Horace Swartley Poley created a major collection of photographic images of Native Americans in the southwestern United States. Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania in 1864, Poley moved to Colorado in the 1880s and was a resident of Colorado Springs for sixty-two years. Poley started a commercial photo studio in 1892 and remained an active photographer until 1935. In addition to his photographic work, Poley served as head of the U.S. Postal registry department in Colorado Springs. During summer vacations, Poley served as photographer with archaeological expeditions in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and southwest Colorado. He recorded landscapes, cityscapes, and events in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. Poley was noted for his travelogue lectures employing his images in "magic lantern" shows.
The Denver Public Library obtained the Poley collection in 1937. In a letter to the Library dated Feb. 20, 1935, Mr. Poley described the collection:
Poley Letter
Poley gave popular shows of his lantern slides to people awed to see projected, large, color images.
Some of Poley's Lantern Slides
The Poley Family and their House
The Poley Family
Horace S. Poley
Mr. Poley also wins the "Best Moustache" award.
Explore the entire online Poley collection here, and be aware that we have other Poley items, especially the lantern slides, that are not digitized but are available here at Denver Central Library, in the Western History / Genealogy Department.
"Wow Photo Wednesday" celebrates photographs in the Denver Public Library's Digital Collections that have "The Wow Factor" and that highlight the myriad delightful nuggets in our database.
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