Frank Reeves:

An Inventory of His Papers, 1910-1972 and undated, at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library

Biographical Sketch

Frank Reeves was a well-known livestock reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the American Hereford Journal, and the Cattleman. Born in Kentucky, Frank Reeves grew up on his family's livestock farm in Young County, Texas, and attended Grayson College. Though hoping to study law, Reeves instead accepted a position at the Swenson Land and Cattle Company (SMS Ranch). He remained there for 14 years and took photographs which were reproduced in the ranch's catalog. For $50, the Stetson Hat Company bought Reeves' photo of an SMS cowboy drinking from his hat and used the caption, "Stetson hat beats sanitary drinking cup any old time."

His work captured the working cowboy in each decade along with a little of the romance of ranch life and he did this on every major ranch in Texas. Scenes that include all aspects of cow work, ranch architecture, horses, breeds of cattle, stock shows, cattle sales, rodeos, and the people who were involved make his photograph collection a well-rounded view of 20th century ranching in the American Southwest and northern Mexico. Many of his images have the quality of movie stills- a lone cowboy working the cattle at dusk, a chuckwagon cook moving the dutch oven of sourdough biscuits to the center of the coals, a cowboy and horse drinking from the stream side-by-side. Others emphasize Reeves' specialty of action photography. In a 1969 interview Reeves said, "I've always tried to make my pictures authentic instead of spectacular. I wanted them (the subjects) working, not standing around looking at the camera. A lot of times I'd make the picture and say, `thank ya,' then they'd get busy and I'd get busy shooting."

After leaving the SMS Ranch, Reeves took on other ranch jobs and eventually ended up in California, where he wrote a series of articles for the Dallas News. Returning to Texas in 1929, he landed a job with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Reeves remained a reporter with this newspaper until his death.

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Scope and Contents

The collection consists of Reeve's articles for his Fort Worth Star-Telegram column and his free lance work for the Hereford Journal, correspondence, bibliographical material, financial material, photographs, printed material, and scrapbook material.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Open for research.

Some archival collections may be housed in storage outside of the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library building. Requests to retrieve such materials may take up to 10 business days to complete. Please contact our Reference Department to arrange retrieval.

Audio, video, and film recordings may not be immediately accessible due to format, condition, or copyright status. All items must be digitized prior to patron use. Because not all collections materials have been digitized, please contact the Reference Archivist at least 10 days prior to arrival in order to coordinate digitization. Though we can digitize much of our holdings within two weeks, some media may be fragile and require specialized digitization outsourcing, which can take up to three months for completion.

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Related Materials:

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Frank Reeves Papers, 1910-1972 and undated, Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

Accession Information

Collection accession #(s):
n/a

Gift, 1982

Processing Information

Processed by: Abel Ramirez, 2000

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Collection Inventory

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