Post #11

Re-examining Roy Baker

Over the past week I have been striving to locate and identify pictoral evidence that is relevant to Fort D.A. Russell, Cheyenne, and the Roy Baker case itself. I must confess that uncovering photographs dealing with this material has been particularly challenging. But I have made some progress thus far.

I have searched the online catalogs of the National Archives (NARA) and the Library of Congress extensively in hopes of finding a relevant collection. NARA has an large collection of digital images of Fort D.A. Russell. Unfortunatly, those images are from the fort during the World War I era. The most promising find I have discovered at NARA is a collection entitled, "Personnel and Activities of Infantry Units, 1850-1941". This collection contains, "portraits and other prints of officers and enlisted men of the 10th, 15th, 17th, and 19th Infantry." Due to scheduling conflicts, I was unable to make the trip to College Park this week, but I intend to make the trip tomorrow in hopes of searching this and other collections at NARA.

I discovered a map in the Library of Congress' collection that might prove to be useful for some. This is a map entitled, "Bird's Eye View of Cheyenne, Wyo. county seat of Laramie Co. 1882" by Beck and Pauli lithographers. Even though this arial view predates our study it might still prove somewhat useful.

I also searched the Perry Casteneda Map Collection at the University of Texas Austin. This site has been very helpful for me in past research. It provides a large number of digital copies of hisotrical maps. However, in this case there were no maps that were particularly relevant. There are some very interesting historical maps on this sight, including a few maps dealing with Western expansion that may prove to be useful to some of you in the future.

I have also searched for other photographic evidence on online databases. I have made a few interesting finds. It must be noted though that I am very cautious in even listing these images. Online research for images can be a very dangerous thing for the historian so I will have to do much more backround research to confirm the accuracy of these images. The site titled Wyoming Tales and Trails has a number of images of Cheyenne and Fort D.A. Russell. Unfortunatley, the D.A. Russel images either deal with the early 20th Century or they are undated. There are a number of images of Cheyenne that are dated in the 1880's. However, given the title's inculsion of "tales", the lack of bibiographic information on the archives holding these images, and the lack of professional credentials of the individual who maintains the site, I am very hesitant to trust their accuracy.

Progress on my re-write is also coming along. I am interested to see what information in uncovered dealing with military life and discipline during this period. My paper largely focused upon this angle and the general breakdown of military order as a key factor that opened the door for the unfolding of events that led to the death of Roy Baker. It seemed as though there are a number of people delving into this information. Since this information will be so vital to my re-write (and since I do not desire to be a slug), I would be happy to assist anyone in this line of research as well if it is needed or desired.