West Texas Images by Wm Patton

Published by David on

William Patton was an insurance agent is the west Texas town of Hereford in the 1940’s and later. He was required to take photographs of items his company insured or had claims on. He also took many photographs of just about anything or anyone who requested it.

I came across a bunch of his negatives at an auction house in Vernon, TX between 2004 and 2006. They were not identified as to where they came from or what they depicted. After taking a quick peak at some of the negatives, I realized that there was a lot of history buried in the mass of negatives, so just for the fun of it, I purchased the lot.

Most of these negatives were black and white 4×5 film and 6×6 cm film. Each negative, or sometimes several related ones were in paper envelopes and labeled with a short description of the subject. This labeling is how I learned Mr. Patton’s name and where he hailed from. I conducted several internet searches and sent emails to several people in Deaf Smith County (where Hereford is located) to find out as much as I could regarding Mr. Patton.

Over the course of several years I have reviewed these images and scanned many of them using a Epson V700 photo scanner. Of the 15 or so (shoe-box sized) boxes I purchased, I scanned over a thousand of the negatives. After completing this task, I donated the original negatives to the Deaf Smith, TX County Museum.

The images I scanned were of Mr. Patton, his family, and interesting scenes in and around Hereford, TX.

Any or all of the images in the William Patton gallery are available for licensing.


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