June 30, 2025

This Week in the West: Ralph Doubleday and the Birth of Rodeo Photography

5 minutes

🤠This Week in the West

🎙️ Episode 35: Ralph Doubleday and the Birth of Rodeo Photography

📢 Episode Summary:

In this episode of This Week in The West, we take you back to the dusty arena of Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1910, where a single photograph would help define the visual legacy of rodeo in America. Behind the lens was Ralph Doubleday, a tenacious and inventive photographer whose work transformed rodeo into a national spectacle.

Listeners will learn how Doubleday, raised far from the frontier in Iowa, embraced early photography as his ticket to adventure. From photographing foreign lands and presidential safaris to braving bucking broncs and raging bulls, Doubleday’s career was as wild and unpredictable as the sport he helped to immortalize. His distinctive approach to photography—favoring blur over freeze-frame—captured the energy and emotion of rodeo like no one else.

You’ll also learn about the remarkable Ralph R. Doubleday Rodeo Photograph Collection held at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Dickinson Research Center—and how this treasured archive keeps his story alive for future generations.

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

How Ralph Doubleday helped establish rodeo as a significant American sport through his innovative action photography.

Why his gritty, handcrafted approach to capturing the moment set him apart from other photographers of the era.

Where to find thousands of Doubleday’s original images today, preserved at the Dickinson Research Center here at The Cowboy.

👥 Behind the Scenes

Host: Seth Spillman

Producer: Chase Spivey

Writer: Mike Koehler

🔗 Further research:

The Ralph Doubleday Rodeo Photograph Collection at our Dickinson Research Center: https://archives.nationalcowboymuseum.org/repositories/3/resources/16

The photo that started it all, Gus Nylen thrown off by bucking bronco Teddy Roosevelt on The Cowboy’s page on Google Arts & Culture: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/teddy-roosevelt-gus-nylen-going-down-ralph-r-doubleday/lAHobLDO8JfkNg?hl=en

A short video created by The Cowboy about Ralph Doubleday: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/explore/ralph-r-doubleday-capturing-rodeos-golden-age/

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By The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

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