Historic Hood River
Jim
1-6-2021
Notes
Ezra Meeker has a flare for showmanship and self promotion. He published books and several series of postcards to finance his efforts. In this card followers met his collie “Jim.” In others they met his oxen Twist and Dave.
Here is the caption in Meeker’s own words:
The dog Jim shown here with the team on the bridge, has come all the way across the continent; his habit of trotting on the way ahead and then returning to meet the team, and next to run out on first one side the road and then the other, has caused him to travel more than three times as far as the oxen; estimate has traveled 10,000 miles; he always disliked to ride in the wagon; Scotch Collie, 3 years old (July 1907).
L.E.
Well, I had to look up Scotch Collie:
https://www.hycottagefarmcollies.com/sodermalm-house
When I was little, we had a dairy and a Collie. I have no idea what kind of Collie. I don’t remember him bringing cows in, in the morning, but in the evening I remember Dad saying to Duke, "Go get the cows". The cows were already fairly close to the barn, and Duke would go out in the pasture and slowly work the cows up to the barn door where dad was waiting.
kmb
I always love a good dog story, it warms my heart. I am wondering about the art work here – is this a heavily colorized photo, or some other form of artwork? Perhaps a colorized photo, made into a lithograph?
ArthurB
kmb, I believe this was a monochrome photograph converted to a color lithograph. I’ve found the original b&w images of some of our local postcards from this period, which look like this in the postcard version.