The Dalton Gang - Famous Image from the Wild West

Here is a small but fascinating item.

Below, pictured from left to right (all dead), are Bill Powers (aka Tom Evans), Bob Dalton, Grat Dalton, and Dick Broadwell (aka Texas Jack). This photo was taken on or about October 5, 1892 after these men, members of "The Dalton Gang," were killed in the firefight that ensued after their attempt to simultaneously rob two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas was thwarted by citizens and law enforcement.

Until coming across this item I knew next to nothing about the Dalton Gang, but somehow the image felt familiar - I felt I must have seen it before. And that's probably true - do a Google image search on "Dalton Gang" and you will see that this image or a version of it numbers about half of the results on the first results page. Such an apparently ubiquitous image must have passed across my eyes before and then been buried deep in the subconscious. Regardless, it would appear that this is an iconic image of the American Wild West.

In terms of content, it is not terribly groundbreaking - Matthew Brady took equally if not more gruesome photographs of the dead during the American Civil War nearly thirty years previous. But there is something about this photograph that differentiates it from the somber documentarian-ism of Brady. Perhaps it is the fact that the dead men were obviously posed and put on display like so. Perhaps it is the faintly pleasant expression on the face of Texas Jack. Perhaps it is that this image was re-printed, pasted on a card, and sold by the fortuitous local photographer who captured this image. (The price of the photo, 25 cents, is equal to almost $6 today.) Or perhaps it is that it testifies in such sharp contrast against the aura of romance that then (and even after) surrounded the "Wild West."

There is also an unmistakable American-ness to the image. Implicit in the photographer's marketing and sale of the image, and in the public's apparent willingness to pay for such a gruesome image, there is an almost libertarian, distinctly American pride, a faith in justice and community -- a message that says, "This is what happens to outlaws in Coffeyville, Kansas," or, on a larger scale, America. In fact, Coffeyville became famous after this incident as "the town that stopped the Daltons."