Possible tintype of Billy the Kid

Comment by Steve McCarty on August 26, 2010 at 5:40pm

The more I read and contemplate what has been written here, the more I consider that I'm not doing the collection justice. I feel a huge responsibility to it, which is why I don't want to sell them and see them split up. The bunch has punch when viewed in mass, and less so when seen one at a time. I wish that I could array them for all of you to see. There are a lot of pictures.

Will I find better provenance if I go out to the Chisum ranch? Only maybe. The pictures were kept largely secret, Ara, as far as I can tell, wanting to keep her family's history with the regulators mum and squirreled the photos away. Most are in nearly knew condition and show little other than packing damage from being jammed together. Some have been dropped, which bends them.

I'll have to drive out there, I guess.

Comment by Steve McCarty on August 27, 2010 at 2:05pm

i'm not trying to prove a murder here folks. I found some interesting pictures that I believe are who I believe them to be, and I've stated my case. I've found the family who owned them and I know how they were sold and I watched the owner of the shop on several occasions pull a dozen out of old cake boxes.

I'll have to decide within myself whether or not I'll jump through your hoops. I think you guys are being overly arbitrary and that your rules for acceptance will cut out a lot in interesting, valid stuff, causing it to be tossed aside. Like my photos. However I appreciate what you've said. I'll think about it.

Comment by Michael on August 28, 2010 at 6:00pm

Jeff,
Authentication in regards to the "Museum" that you mentioned is virtually non-existant. In addition to the collection that you mentioned, they recently displayed a Civil War exhibit that featured among a number of misidentifified objects, a model 1902 cavalry saber. The admininstration there needs to do some serious homework.

Comment by Janet Erwin on August 29, 2010 at 8:57am

A photograph taken in Wisconsin by a Wisconsin photographer, but you're sure it's Billy, therefore Morgan must have traveled to New Mexico to escape the brutal Wisconsin winters, and taken Kid's photo while he was there.

Or maybe the Kid trekked all the way to Wisconsin (to escape the brutal New Mexican summer of course) and had his picture taken while he was there?

Stranger things have happened--but not many. LOL!

Comment by Steve McCarty on August 29, 2010 at 11:19am

Yes, Janet it is a mystery, how Morgan arrived in Lincoln. I cannot find a reference to him being there, but that doesn't mean he wasn't. He worked from a wagon from 1871 to 1882. Wisconsin is a bit nippy in the Winter, especially during what some call The Little Ice Age. Since one cannot take tintypes in sub-zero weather, I figure he must have headed to warmer climes.

Of course I'm speculating, but not without some evidence.

Comment by Steve McCarty on August 29, 2010 at 11:48am

If this is the Kid, as I'm convinced it is, and since I have another picture of who I strongly believe is Richard Brewer that looks just like this one, and was probably taken at the same time, then Billy has just witnessed the murder of John Tunstall. He had already killed a man (Cahill), but had not built his reputation yet. He is disarmingly youthful looking. Yet underneath that youthful charm, there lerked a killer.

Comment by Steve McCarty on August 29, 2010 at 12:40pm

Janet, we know that Richard Brewer was in Wisconsin. There is no evidence that Billy ever was. I don't know if Brewer was in Vernon County, but I know for a fact that George W. Morgan was. I also know that Morgan didn't open a photography shop until he quit taking ferrotypes in 1882. He operated his shop until 1890 when he retired and moved back to Tennessee. His shop became a shooting gallery.

The only evidence that Morgan went to New Mexico is in his pictures. I'll post some that I came across in Wisconsin, so that you can see the similarities.

Comment by tim davis on January 5, 2012 at 2:17am

not to sound like a broken record, but steve i believe your back story on these pics. if you were a spammer you wouldn't have the most perfect photo of billy ever, i.d.'d as brewer.

all anyone here on the board has to do is find 2 photos with a fairly close camera/head angle, match the size of the pupils center to center in any shareware photo manipulation program, then the nostrils and lips should line up at least fairly closely. (after 1st making sure they're 'flipped' properly)

Comment by tim davis on January 5, 2012 at 2:22am

this one can't match this one with any certainty because the angles and expression are unique but i can see that the 'cross' made by the horizontal pupil alignment intersected with the facial midline and nose orientation, are a match. and i like your description of btk's facial features. they are demonstrated in this photo. whoever says 'doesn't look like billy' hasn't looked at enough pics of the boy. and there are many. you didn't have to go hunting for a photographer in new mexico as badly as folks may say. like you said, the portable tintype production wagon was seen at many town fairs, etc. in a region where people were bored easily. and billy did like to interface with the public at such places,... bailes etc... 

Comment by Steve McCarty on January 5, 2012 at 10:45am

No, my picture of Brewer is Brewer and not the Kid, but I did like looking at your matching software Tim.  Thank you.

For some reason photobucket isn't working for me here and I've not been able to post new photos.  I am thrilled about my two tintypes of John Middleton.  One I just copied from the album in Wisconsin.  The other I found when I found the others. It was one of the first I discovered and at the time I did not know who he was, but the picture was so great that I bought it anyway.  Then I found the one in Wisconsin and they matched. Neat.

 

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