Little Missouri Horse Company. Original Mounted Photographs.

St. Paul: Ingersoll, Photo, [ca. 1888]. Five original albumen photographs, each about 4 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches on original matching plain mounts, 8 x 10 inches, captioned in negative, 3 with inked stamps on verso of "Ingersoll, Photo., St. Paul, Minn." One with a short marginal tear and another with minimal foxing. A fine view into the workaday world of the 1880s.The Little Missouri Horse Company was established by Arthur Clark Huidekoper in the Dakota Territory in 1884, around the same time and place that Theodore Roosevelt began his own ranching adventures. The Little Missouri soon became one of the largest horse breeding operations in American history, known for its elegant and hard-working Percherons. Various addresses are given for the company in southwestern North Dakota, including Medora, Amidon, Gladstone, and Black Butte; it was a big property. As the decades rolled in Huidekoper grew more and more irritasted at having his horses end where they shouldn't so he bought a lifetime supply of barbed wired and set to work. These photographs are captioned in the negative as follows: "River Ranch, Little Missouri Horse Co., No. 12"; "Bunch of Percheron Mares, L.M.H. Co. No 24."; "Little Boxelder Line Camp Barn, L.M.H. Co., No. 15"; "Gambetta, L. M. H. Co. Stallion, No. 21"; and "Bunch of Range Mares and Stallions." Most of them also feature the ranch's "HT" brand in the captions.The photographer Truman Ward Ingersoll (1862-1922) was based in St. Paul, MN but was known for shooting scenic views throughout the western states. On one trip to this corner of the Dakotas, he captured rancher Theodore Roosevelt circa 1886. One of the photographs offered here shows the company's prize stallion Gambetta, which arrived in camp in that era (see the Arizona Champion, 8 May 1886).