Once President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, which
granted 160 acres of free land to anyone with the grit to farm it
for five years, the rush to the Great Plains was on. Solomon D.
Butcher was there to document it, amassing more than three thousand
photographs and compiling the most complete record of the sod house
era ever made.
Butcher (1856-1927) staked his claim on the plains in 1880. He
didn't like farming, but he found another way to thrive. He had
learned the art of photography as a teenager, and he began taking
pictures of his friends and neighbors. Butcher noticed how fast the
vast land was "settling up," so he formed the plan that would
become his life's work--to record the frontier days in words and
images.
Alongside sixty-two of Butcher's iconic photographs, "Light on
the Prairie" conveys the irrepressible spirit of a man whose
passion would give us a firsthand look at the men and women who
settled the Great Plains. Like his subjects, Butcher was a pioneer,
even though he held a camera more often than a plow.
Watch an interview with the author.
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