Celebrating women making a difference in Colorado history

 Women’s History Month is a celebration of women’s contributions to history, culture and society and has been observed every year in March in the United States since 1987. Women’s History Month 2023 takes place from Wednesday, March 1 - Friday, March 31, 2023. Thing of the past ... and Colorado Restless Native recognizes just some of the women who have made a difference here in the Centennial state.

Thing of the past ...

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Denver Zephyr, beauty contestants

Date: 1936

Beauty contestant winners (identified from left to right) Elizabeth Foster, Wilma Adams, Florence Collier, Virginia Roper, Beverley Peterson, and their chaperon, Mrs. H.C. Leuty pose in the observation car of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Denver Zephyr. The seated women wear corsages and hold bouquets of flowers. They wear coats and hats.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Denver, snowstorm

Date: 1913 December

Nude woman sculpted from snow during the snowstorm of 1913 in Denver, Colorado.

Photographic postcards. Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Dancers promote the Rocky Mountain News

Creator: Rhoads, Harry Mellon, 1880 or 1881-1975

Date: [1925-1930?]

Donor: Morey Engle

A dance team of women wear identical outfits printed with Rocky Mountain News pages; headline reads: "You Can Believe What You See In The News!"

 

Thing of the past ...

University of Northern Colorado gymnasium

Date: [1905-1920]

Women exercise in the gymnasium at the University of Northern Colorado (formerly known as the State Normal School, Colorado Teacher's College, Colorado State College of Education, and Colorado State College) in Greeley, Colorado in Weld County. Two women hang from the rings; two climb a hanging ladder. One holds a medicine ball, and another hangs from a parallel bar. In the background two women exercise with a swing; one stands on top of the swing, and the other hangs upside down on the swing from her knees.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Denver Tramway

Creator: Rule, Lloyd

Date: [1951]

Donor: Pierce O'Farrill, donor

A model poses by a Denver Tramway streetcar in Denver, Colorado. The woman has a brush, a Butterfinger candy bar, and other items around her neck, and wears a tiny hat. The streetcar destination reader says "17th Street;" other signs read "Shopper's Special 5 cents."

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Face on the bar room floor Teller House, Central City

Creator: Newbury, Samuel S.

Date:1936

Face on the hardwood bar room floor of the Teller House in Central City, Colorado in Gilpin County; painted by Colorado artist Herndon Davis (1901-1962) in 1936.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Jobyna Howland

Creator: Rose & Hopkins

Date: [1886-1901]

Full-length studio portrait of Jobyna Howland, stage and screen actress and comedienne; born in Indianapolis, educated in Denver; daughter of Joby A. Howland, minstrel man; made New York stage debut in 1899; original "Gibson Girl" (posed for artist Charles Dana Gibson). She wears a flowered hat and holds a flower. The backdrop has an ornate window.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Denver Public Library Special Collections

Justina L. Ford

Date: circa 1935

Photograph of Doctor Justina L Ford holding a baby while standing on a porch. Doctor Ford was one of the first women doctors in the Denver area. She was instrumental in the development of health care in Denver. In summer of 1975, the Denver Public Library honored the memory of Dr. Ford by dedicating the Ford-Warren Library in east Denver.

Original Material Found in Collection

Denver Public Library Archive

Denver Public Library. Ford Warren Branch.

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Mary Lathrop

Creator: Rose & Hopkins

Date: [1886-1901]

Studio portrait, head and shoulders, of Mary Florence Lathrop, first woman to practice law in Denver; graduated from University of Denver Law School, 1896; first woman admitted to practice in U.S. Courts of Colorado, 1898; admitted to Colorado Bar Association, 1913; admitted to American Bar Association, 1917; journalist for Philadelphia Press and McClure's Magazine.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Margaret "Molly" Tobin Brown

Date: [1900-1910?]

Studio portrait of Margaret "Molly" Tobin Brown. She wears a bead necklace, sleeveless dress decorated with flowers and a train.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Mary Lincoln (Queen) Mellen was born in Prestonburg, Kentucky on March 26, 1850. She was the only child of Isabelle and William Proctor Mellen.

Queen married William Jackson Palmer on November 8, 1870 in Flushing, New York where the Mellen family lived at the time. The Palmer's had three children. Elsie, born in 1872, Dorothy, born in 1880 and Marjory, born in 1881.

Queen Palmer, at age twenty-one, opened the first public school in Colorado Springs in November, 1871. School was held in a three room house she rented on Cascade Avenue.

Photo: Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District

 

Thing of the past ...

After Horace Tabor died in 1899, his widow, Elizabeth "Baby Doe" Tabor, spent the last three decades of her life trying to retain ownership of the Matchless Mine.

Horace Tabor had an extended affair with Elizabeth Bonduel McCourt, who came to be known as "Baby Doe" Tabor following their marriage in 1883.

Photo from Encyclopedia Colorado.

 

Whirlwind 1,000 miles-wide piles up nine-foot dust drifts

Huge cloud of dust approaching Jake & Babes cafe and other businesses in Walsh, Baca County, or Holly, Prowers County, southeastern Colorado. 

 Giant Eddy Encircles Whole Western Sky

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

 The whole decade was known as the "Dark Decade" and the "Dirty Thirties" but April, 1935, was devastatingly problematic for many Coloradans when a "whirlwind nearly 1,000 miles-wide cast a pall of dust over the state." As the headlines of Denver Post noted, "Giant Eddy Encircles Whole Western Sky, with State in the Center," and "Lights Go On in Mid-Day Darkness." Along with dust "Drifts Nine Feet High Piled Up By Wind On Road Near Durango." 

"Denver and the entire eastern half of the state Tuesday were in the calm, dust-laden center of gigantic whirlwind nearly a thousand miles in diameter," wrote The Post's Gene Lindberg on April 9, 1935.  

"Never before in the history of the west, according to weather bureau records here, has such and immense blanket of dust been cast over the region," Lindberg said.

On April 14, 1935, a “black duster” overtook Robert E. Geiger, a reporter for the Washington (DC) Evening Star, and photographer Harry G. Eisenhard six miles from Boise City, Oklahoma. Geiger coined the term Dust Bowl when he used it in a subsequent article for the Lubbock (TX) Evening Journal. The Dust Bowl encompassed the entire Great Plains, stretching from southwestern Kansas into southeastern Colorado, northeastern New Mexico, and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas. 

Although Baca County in Colorado experienced the brunt of the Dust Bowl, dust storms occurred as far north as Burlington in Kit Carson County and Julesburg in Sedgwick County. Las Animas and Prowers counties were especially hard hit. Dust covered roads and made them impassable, suffocated livestock, destroyed crops, and laid ruin to the livelihoods of thousands of eastern Coloradans.

"During the Dust Bowl, Colorado’s plains also suffered from grasshopper infestations. Grasshoppers thrived in the desiccated prairie soils and first descended upon Colorado in 1934. In 1937 and 1938, swarms of the insects almost blacked out the sun as they consumed entire fields of barley, wheat, and alfalfa. The federal government sent employees from the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) to eradicate the pests by poisoning them," according to History Colorado's Colorado Encyclopedia.

Dust storm in southern Colo. Date: 1935. Huge cloud of dust over residences and a grain elevator, possibly in Walsh, Baca County, or Holly, Prowers County, southeastern Colorado. The devastating dust bowl carried top soil for miles. Denver Public Library Special Collections

 "Although some families endured, many residents found it impossible to support themselves and ended up migrating to places like California and Oregon. Baca County, for example, lost 4,363 residents during the 1930s."

On April 15, 1935, Clyde Byers from Post wrote, "Another blinding dustorm boiled over parts five states like a scourge Monday. It affected all of southern Colorado from the eastern to the western boundaries, and inflicted  heavy damage and real suffering in parts of New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Dust drifts nine feet high were blown up near Durango, Colo."

"Alarmed by the situation, officials in Washington put machinery of seven government departments in high gear to alleviate the distress and push programs designed to prevent recurrence of the stifling storms. Twenty thousand civilian conservation corps enrollees are to be sent into to the stricken area to work on the latter programs and relief activities are to be broadened," said Byers.

He also reported problem with machinery like airplanes and autos in the path of the storm.

"Pilots flying into Denver municipal airport that they could not see the administration building from an altitude of 100 feet. A Wyoming Air Service plane, which left Pueblo for Denver during the afternoon was forced to turn back." 

"The storm generated sufficient static electricity to cripple automobile ignition systems and scores of motorist were temporarily stranded because the static was so intense. When the storm abated, they found they could start their engines again. At the height of the storm, motorist said, they received distinct electrical shocks when they touched the door handles and similar attachments on their cars. Motorist made it a practice to drag wires and chains to ground the static and prevent short circuits."

"This static is blamed by agriculturalists and weather experts for helping kill sprouting wheat thruout the drouth and dust area. Fields of wheat sprouts are seared and shriveled from the combined effects of static electricity and the lack of moisture," said Byers in The Post.

"There were reports that jack rabbits have been electrocuted. Many of the pests have perished, but no one has conducted autopsies to determine the cause. They might have eaten too much dust. That has caused death of livestock in Western Kansas."

Templeton Gap Camp DPE-201-C

(Templeton Gap Camp, drainage, private land, erosion)
Creator: Newman, Almeron, 1875-1946
Date; Apr 17, 1935
Exterior panoramic photograph showing a bird's eye view of a civilian conservation corps (CCC) camp located four miles northeast of downtown Colorado Springs. The camp was named Templeton Gap Camp, but was also known as Fountain Camp. It was likely run by the U.S. Forest Service and operated from 1934 to 1938. CCC camps, also known as "drought relief camps" were created after the Dust Bowl. The members of this camp built canals, ditches, and dams. They also planted vegetation and terraced land in efforts to improve and preserve soil retention. The camp was designated as both DPE-201-C and SCS-6-C; DPE stands for "drainage private land erosion" and SCS stands for "soil control service."
Original Material Found in Collection C Photo Collection 522. Western history digital photograph collection
Digital Version Created From; C Photo Collection 522, OV Box 1
Notes; Condition: Tear in lop left corner and several along edges. Stain on bottom right. Text on front of photograph reads: "Templeton Gap Camp DPE-201-C, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Fred M. Sperry, 1st Lt. Cav. Res., commanding; Lawrence E. Carpenter, 1st Lt. Eng. Res., second in command; A. Newman Photo Co. Silver City, N.M. #2." Information provided by seller: "Almeron Newman (1875-1964) was a military photographer who primarily produced panoramic images and traveled throghout the southwest. He served as the Director of Photography for the U.S. Government at Lowery Field during WWII, and worked out of Colorado, New Mexico and the Arizona Territory." Denver Public Library Special Collections.

John Prine familiar to Colorado, left us souvenirs

John Prine (left) and Jason Wilber (right) perform at the Second Chatfield Musical Festival at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield Sunday afternoon June 12, 2005. Dennis Schoeder/Rocky Mountain News

Don't you know her when you see her?
She grew up in your back yard
Come back to us Barbara Lewis
Hare Krishna Beauregard

Can't you picture her next Thursday?
Can you picture her at all?
In the Hotel Boulderado
At the dark end of the hall

John E. Prine

John Prine (left) and Dave Jacques (right) perform at the Second Chatfield Musical Festival at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield Sunday afternoon June 12, 2005. Dennis Schoeder/Rocky Mountain News

Songwriter visited Colorado early and often

By Rob Carrigan,  robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Though his roots were, of course on the mail route in Chicago and coal country of Kentucky, at the very start of his career John Prine spent a considerable amount of time in Colorado. You hear it in the details of lyrics written about characters and places like "Barbara Lewis" and the "Hotel Bolderado."

 Prine himself explained in liner notes: 

"That came about while traveling around Colorado with Ramblin' Jack Elliott. At that time, there were a lot of people who were leftover hippies who never made it all the way to California, as if they got to the Rockies and went, "God, I can't get over that," and just settled in. "

Also, "I had different friends of mine who went through the '60s, from being totally straight or greasers, then turned into hippies, and then into a religious thing. So I created this character who had done all those different things. I got the name Barbara Lewis from the R&B singer ("Hello Stranger," 1963; "Baby, I'm Yours,"1965). The rest of the name of the character just came from that same place as "Yes I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You"- it just falls off the tongue really nicely. I often try to match a syllable for each note; I call it the Chuck Berry School of Songwriting. He's got it so dead-on that you can just read his lyric, and that would be a melody."

"Prine first visited Colorado’s Front Range in 1972, performing at Marvelous Marv’s in Denver and Tulagi in Boulder, forging a reputation as a songwriter and performer through songs that were simultaneously detailed, cynical and funny,"  notes Colorado Musical Experience.

"The prime Prine was found on John Prine, his acclaimed debut album—“Sam Stone” (about the abuse of Vietnam vets), the wry ballad “Donald and Lydia,” “Illegal Smile” (an ode to recreational pot smoking), the anti-war song “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore” and the much-covered “Paradise,” a nostalgic anthem against strip mining in rural Kentucky (where his folks had lived), says Colorado Music Experience.

According to a piece about his death by Dylan Owens of theknow@denverpost.com:

"Prine was — and this is rare, talking to musicians — every ounce the man you’d hope him to be. He laughed at my worst jokes, spoke at length about his love of pork chops and rattled off 30-year-old anecdotes with a poetic attention to detail.

"Case in point: I asked him about his first show in Colorado, at Tulagi’s in Boulder, opening a week of shows for comedian George Carlin.

“I was there for a week. The walls looked like the Flintstones. The girls looked like they were in The Playboy Club — real skimpy pseudo leather,” Prine said. “George called the audience beehives and bowties.”

Prine recounted how he’d played most small towns throughout the state early in his career, thanks to his friendship with Colorado promoter Chuck Morris. (“I wish he’d stop wearing his golf clothes,” Prine joked to me about Morris. “I’ve been on him for years trying to tell him checks and stripes don’t go together.”)

His memories of his first tour were as colorful as you’d imagine.

“Colorado had a reputation. Smoke a lot of dope, lot of pretty girls. It was a fun place to play,” Prine said. “Me and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot covered 12 cities in a broken-down RV full of strange characters. It was like Ken Kesey’s bus.”

Beat Generation writer Ken Kesey, of course, also had ties to the state and was born in La Junta, Colo.

In the early days, of the "singing mailman," Prine garnered early attention by critic Roger Ebert.

The following was published in the Sun-Times on Oct. 9, 1970.

While “digesting Reader’s Digest” in a dirty book store, John Prine tells us in one of his songs, a patriotic citizen came across one of those little American flag decals.

He stuck it on his windshield and liked it so much he added flags from the gas station, the bank and the supermarket, until one day he blindly drove off the road and killed himself. St. Peter broke the news:"

Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore;

It’s already overcrowded from your dirty little war.

"Lyrics like this are earning John Prine one of the hottest underground reputations in Chicago these days. He’s only been performing professionally since July, he sings at the out-of-the-way Fifth Peg, 858 W. Armitage, and country-folk singers aren’t exactly putting rock out of business. But Prine is good," wrote Ebert, back then.

Prine settled into a regular routine of recording and touring in his early  career, slowly building  an audience, says Prine biographer Eddie Huffman in his 2015 book "John Prine: In Spite of Himself."

"In the summer of 1973, he did a summer tour "little ski towns" in the Rockies with one of his early heroes, Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Elliott had  authenticity as a folksy, down-to-earth country boy, despite being a Jewish doctor's son from Brooklyn. It was the off season for tourist, so the crowds were small."

"Jack showed up with this Winnebago and had a couple of interesting character acters with him," according to Prine. "A 'black and gay' comedian named Kelly Green opened the shows. "He would go out and sing 'Old Cowhand' (From the Rio Grande).'" 

"A lot of the cowboys down on the front row – I don't know if they liked that or not."

Prine also appeared that summer at Willie Nelson's fourth of July Picnic outside of Austin. The lineup mixed country and rock artists, such as Nelson, Kris Kritofferson, Tom T. Hall,  and Leon Russell.

 On March 19, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Prine's wife Fiona revealed that she had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and had been quarantined in their home apart from him. He was hospitalized on March 26 after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. On March 30, Fiona tweeted that she had recovered and that John was in stable condition but not improving.  Prine died on April 7, 2020, of complications caused by COVID-19 at the age of 73.

All the snow has turned to water
Christmas days have come and gone
Broken toys and faded colours
Are all that's left to linger on
I hate graveyards and old pawn shops
For they always bring me tears
I can't forgive the way they robbed me
Of my childhood souvenirs

 

Memories, they can't be boughten
They can't be won at carnivals for free
Well it took me years to get those souvenirs
And I don't know how they slipped away from me

Souvenirs, ___ John E. Prine

Colorado's band history music to our ears

 Folk and traditional music has been a Colorado mainstay since the early days of statehood, and has taken on many forms. Following are just a few examples in historic photos.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Thing of the past ...
 

Indian Band, Ft. Lewis School
Creator: Poley, H. S. (Horace Swartley)
Date: [1892-1910]
The Fort Lewis School Indian Band poses outdoors with their instruments near Fort Lewis, La Plata County, Colorado. One boy holds a drum major's baton. The Native American (tribe unknown) boys wear uniforms with hats. Pins on their hats read: "TIB". Members of a fraternal order stand on a float behind the band. They wear robes, sashes, and conical hats.
Formerly F-26700; Photographer's stamp on back of cabinet card: "Finishing for Amateurs. 713 N. Tejon Street, Colorado Springs, Colo."; Title written on back of cabinet card. Vintage photographic print.
Denver Public Library Special Collections.

Thing of the past ...

United Rico Cornet Band
Date: [1900-1920]
Men from the United Rico Cornet Band pose with their instruments near commercial buildings and an aerial mine tramway in Rico, Dolores County, Colorado. The cable ore car has number "18" on it. The men hold cornets, trombones, drums, tubas (or euphoniums), clarinets and French horns. They wear suits, ties, hats; some wear knickers and caps. Women and men stand in the background. Signs read: "Laundry" and "Restaurant." Shows a brick building with a tower and dormers, houses and utility poles.
Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 Thing of the past ...

Colo. State Indust. School, battalion
Creator: Rocky Mountain Photo Company
Date: [1928]
Boys and young men of the battalion band pose on steps of the Administration Building, State Industrial School (name change in 1961 to Lookout Mountain School for Boys) Golden, Jefferson County, Colorado. A Black man with baton and a bass drummer with drumstick flank the group. Musical instruments include a snare drum, clarionets, tubas, french horns, saxophones, trumpets and cornets.
Denver Public Library Special Collections

Thing of the past ...

Circus
Creator: Poley, H. S. (Horace Swartley)
Date: 1898
Members of a brass band pose with their instruments near a circus tent, Sunflower (Flower) Carnival, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. Instruments include drums, a trombone, cymbals and a trumpet, The men stand near a tall-sided horse drawn wagon. The men wear long coats and some wear hats.
Original Material Found in H. S. Poley collection.
Denver Public Library Special Collections.

Thing of the past ...

Band
Date:[1910-1917?]
A band leader and members of a brass band practice in an open field. The band is made up of young men and boys probably from the Sells Floto Circus and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Charles Orville Walters is second from the left. Denver Public Library Special Collections.  

Thing of the past ... 

 

Rural folk band 

Latinos/Hispanics in Colorado Collection; image no. VL1.
Contributor: Lopez, Viola R.
Date: [between 1915 and 1920?]
Brothers José Filiberto Martinez, far left with violin and Gaspar Martinez, 2nd left with guitar, play with a rural folk band in San Luis Valley, Colorado. Other musicians include a second man with a violin, a man with a washtub, and two men with mandolins. A man in a light colored derby, and with a cigar in his mouth holds drumsticks and a drum. Three of the men wear straw hats with silk bands, one man wears a cap.
Original Material Found in Collection Latinos/Hispanics in Colorado Collection
Digital Version Created From loan; Viola R. Lopez; 2010.
Item Owned By: Auraria Library
Content derived from inventory prepared by Dana EchoHawk.; From inventory: "In the early 1900's, Filiberto also played with the Bethman's Buccaneer's who occasionally performed live on KGIW Radio station, Alamosa, Colorado."; Modern copy print.; Penciled on verso of photographic print: "José Filiberto Martinez, far left with violin. Born April 11, 1879, Costilla. New Mexico. Died: Nov. 13, 1968, Denver, Colo." and "Gaspar Martinez, 2nd left with guitar. Born: Nov. 15, 1883, San Luis, Colo. Died: Sept. 13, 1968, Denver, Colo. Brother of Filiberto Martinez."

Thing of the past ...

Telluride (Colo.) band in Bridal Veil Park
Creator: Goodman, Charles, 1843-1912
Date:1886 Sept
Donor: T.J. McKee
Men wear suits and hats and hold musical instruments including tubas, cornets, trumpets, trombones, and a bass drum in a meadow below the San Juan Mountains near Telluride (San Miguel County), Colorado. Ingram Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and Ingram Peak are in the distance.
Denver Public Library Special Collections

 Thing of the past ...

 

The old court house

Denver Public Library Special Collections

Date: circa 1882

Donor: Chamber of Commerce

Men line up for a Memorial Day Parade on 2nd (Second) Street in Canon City (Fremont County), Colorado. Shows a drum corps, a man with an American flag, a brass band and men in uniform. Men, women and children watch the parade on foot and in carriages. Houses and the Fremont County Courthouse are in the distance. The courthouse is a three story Victorian brick and stone building with a mansard metal roofs, a clock tower, a widows' walk, coursing and chimneys.

Thing of the past...

Railroad Shop Band

The Denver & Rio Grande Western Shop Band pose with a locomotive in Monument, in the 1920s. 

Lucretia Vaile Museum, Palmer Lake Historical Society

Thing of the past ...

Loveland Cornet band at Hanging Rock

Creator: Buckwalter, Harry H.

The Loveland Cornet Band poses for a group photo at Hanging Rock, probably Clear Creek Canyon, Jefferson County, Colorado. Some band members stand on the railroad tracks in front of the rear railroad, car no. 823, of the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf railroad train.

Date: [between 1890 and 1900]

History Colorado, Buckwalter Collection, Book II, no. 1