Cowboys, Buckaroos, Vaqueros – Who Were They, Really?

	OPAL – Online Programming for All Libraries http://www.opal-online.org/ Library of Congress – http://www.loc.gov American Memory – http://memory.loc.gov

Web Conferences from the Library of Congress

The rich and unique holdings of the Library of Congress include many items that document the history of cowboys, vaqueros, and buckaroos. From photographs, personal accounts, films, and audio recordings, many of these materials are now available online for viewing by anyone interested in cowboy life and culture. Below is a brief selection of cowboy-related resources available through the Library's web site.

~ American Memory Collections ~

Buckaroos in Paradise

Documents a Nevada cattle-ranching community, with a focus on the family-run Ninety-Six Ranch. This collection presents 41 motion pictures and 28 sound recordings that tell the story of life and work on the Ninety-Six Ranch and of its cowboys, known in the region as buckaroos. Motion pictures produced from 1945 to 1965 by Leslie Stewart, owner of the Ninety-Six Ranch, are also included, as well as an archive of 2,400 still photographs.

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940

These life histories, written by the staff of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration, describe the informant's family education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores, medical needs, diet and miscellaneous observations. Many of the life histories include recollections by cowboys of their youth and working days, and also accounts by others of well-known cowboys and outlaws.

Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sounds Recordings of the Edison Companies

This collection features 341 motion pictures, 81 disc sound recordings, and other related materials, such as photographs and original magazine articles from among the surviving products of Edison's entertainment inventions and industries housed at the Library of Congress.

~ Individual Items ~

Black Cowboy and Horse

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+10021563))

View of a Western Way of Life: Vaqueros (portion of an essay)

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ncrhtml/crview03.html

John Fuller, American Life History Account

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/wpa:@field(DOCID+@lit(wpa335020510))#350205100002

Little Joe, The Wrangler (cowboy song)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/toddbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(4116b1

Typical Cowboy Food (personal accounts)

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/riseind/west/beef.html

Branding (video)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncr:@field(DOCID+@lit(nv032))

Why Les Stewart shuns new technology for branding (video)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncr:@field(DOCID+@lit(nv017))

Buckaroos Then and Now (video)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncr:@field(DOCID+@lit(n012))

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Exhibition

Buck Taylor, “King of the Cowboys”

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+00105124))

Trick Rider

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+00105771))

Roping

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+00105779))

Riding a bucking horse

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+00105761))

Entrance

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+00105792))

Annie Oakley (video)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@field(NUMBER+@band(edmp+4030))

Today in History Archive

Billy the Kid - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr30.html#billythekid

Wild Bill Hickok - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may27.html#wildbill

Jesse James - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/sep05.html#jessejames

The Ninety-Six Ranch - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct07.html

Owen Wister's The Virginian published - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jul14.html

~ Other ~

Transcription of "Little Joe, the Wrangler," first stanza:

Little Joe, the Wrangler, he'll wrangle nevermore,
His days aren't many they are o'er.
'Twas a year ago last summer, when he rode into our camp,
Just a little Texas stray and all alone.
It was getting late one evening, he rode into our camp
On a little ole Texas pony he called Chaw,
With his broken shoes and overalls, a tougher lookin' kid
You never in your life had [?].