Evelyn Cameron

Who was Evelyn Cameron?

Evelyn Cameron was a Terry, Montana based photographer. British-born Cameron, and her naturalist husband Ewen, moved to Terry in the 19th century. Evelyn Cameron took startlingly clear pictures of everything: cowboys, sheepherders, weddings, river crossings, freight wagons, people working, badlands, eagles, coyotes and wolves.

Cameron garnered national acclaim for the area through the work of former Time-Life Books editor, Donna Lucey. In the late 1970s, Lucey discovered thousands of Cameron's prints and negatives, along with diaries and letters covering thirty-six years of frontier life, stashed away in the basement of Cameron's best friend's home. After intensive study of the photos and documents Lucey wrote a biography, Photographing Montana 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron, which reproduces more than 170 Cameron images.

The bulk of the photographs are now housed at the Montana Historical Society in Helena. Prints and artifacts are also displayed at the Evelyn Cameron museum in Terry, Montana.

"Lady" Cameron is the subject of the PBS documentary, Evelyn Cameron: Pictures From A Worthy Life.