Praise for Evelyn Cameron
Using Cameron’s diaries, source material and her own deep understanding of the area and its people, the author has crafted a magnificent biographical work, which should appeal to readers of all ages. ~ State of the Arts: About Books
I want to express how much I enjoyed your book. The amount of research you undertook was amazing and all that you discovered you pulled together into a story of heartfelt insight into this unusual woman. You also infused Evelyn’s story with a glimpse of honesty into what it was like in eastern Montana in the late 1880s and early 1900s. I enjoyed reading that people would “pop over from Europe for a bit of hunting in the wilds of Montana.” The Camerons loved the people and animals of Eastern MT and it showed in your writing. You made me see the world through the eyes of early Montanans. What a wonderful legacy she left through not only her photos but her journals and letters as well. Thank you for writing this tribute to a true Montana pioneer. ~ Pam
Evelyn Cameron is featured in Jackson Hole exhibit and on international artist website devoted to women artists
Visit AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, an international association founded to make women artists visible, particularly through conferences, awards, exhibitions, and the website. The biographical index of AWARE now includes over 1300 entries written by specialists from around the world on artists from the 17th to the 20th century. Lorna Milne is among other biographers who are published on AWARE's website and whose sketches accompany the exhibitions.
AWARE is currently publishing biographies of the women featured in the Women Artists of the American West: Trailblazers at the Turn of the 20th Century at the Jackson Hole History Museum. The exhibition opened in January and will be on view until July 12, 2025. Evelyn Cameron is one of the artists selected for the new biography and Milne's biographical sketch can be read here.
Visit the Jackson Hole History Museum website for details.
Photo credit from the AWARE website: Evelyn Cameron, Three girls on horses, June 14, 1900, gelatin silver print, Photos used by permission from the Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph Archives.
Evelyn Cameron: Photographer on the Western Prairie
By Lorna Milne
Media: Paperback, Published May 2017
Young Adult / History
ISBN: 978-0-87842-675-1
176 pp, 6 x 9, $14.00
Distributed by Mountain Press Publishing Company
PO Box 2399, Missoula, MT 59806
Also available at local bookstores and at Amazon.com.
In 1889, a young spunky British woman of genteel upbringing set sail for the United States—against her family's wishes. She traveled with a friend, Ewen Cameron, the man who later became her husband. They were bound for eastern Montana to hunt big game along the Yellowstone River, only thirteen years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The next fall the Camerons returned to England, packed up, and moved to Montana, where they lived for the rest of their lives. They first rented a ranch on the Powder River, among other British expatriates, to raise polo ponies for export to England. After years of limited success in the pony trade, they bought a small herd of cattle, settling into a more dependable existence of ranching and market gardens.
In her first biography, author Lorna Milne uses diaries and letters to reconstruct how Evelyn lived in the harsh eastern Montana landscape and how she became an extraordinary photographer. Evelyn may have been born in England, but through heart and temperament, she was a Westerner. She was resourceful, hard working, observant, artistic, adaptable. According to her contemporary, a traveling Englishwoman, Evelyn was described as “one of the great wonders of Montana.”