5 1/2" x 3 7/8", mount size 6 1/2" x 4 1/4". Pawnee Gallery, MISS NORA HANSON, Pawnee, O.T. photographer’s imprint on front of card. Numbers written in blue ink on front of image, corresponding to verso. Written in ink on verso, in Heck Thomas’s hand:
“1 Spotted Dog Eater / left of
2 Morris Robacker, Police Osage
3 H.A. Thomas
4 Howling Wolf
5 Havinghurst Clerk U.S. Court
6 Roy Hoffman / U.S. Pros, Atty”
Provenance: From Heck Thomas's great grandson to Robert McCubbin.
Robert McCubbin: “This photo is my favorite of any Old West lawman. Heck is obviously ready to take the field, probably with the Osage lawman and the two Indian Scouts. With the identifications on the back written by Heck himself.”
Robert McCubbin: “In 1998 a friend put me in touch with Colin S. Monteith III, a great grandson of Heck Thomas, Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory Deputy Marshal in the 1890s. I arranged to visit him at his home in Atlanta to have a look at the photo album he inherited from his great grandmother, the first wife of Heck Thomas. We reached an agreement for me to buy all the original photos and other items in the album and I would provide copies to be put in the album to replace the original photos. This was one of the best additions to my collection. I was especially pleased because Heck Thomas was the best of all the lawmen of the West in my opinion. I had previously visited Heck’s daughter Beth Thomas Meeks, still living in Norman, Oklahoma, at the age of 91. She was the youngest of the children of Heck and his second wife. She generously gave me a photo and a letter that I particularly liked.”
Lot 217, Brian Lebel's Old West Auction - January 25-26, 2019. Mesa, AZ.
Sold $16,520