Photographic postcard portrait of Margarette Davenport in costume

With studio photography becoming more accessible in the early 20th century, many people enjoyed getting their photograph taken. This photographic postcard has the name of the sitter, Margarette Davenport, scrawled beneath the image. Davenport poses in a studio against a backdrop of illustrated palm trees. She sits astride a fake horse wearing a cowhand costume consisting of a cowboy hat, a gun, and chaps. American pop culture has portrayed cowhands as mostly white men. But this neglects the approximately one-quarter of U.S. cowhands who were African American. While less commonly portrayed than their white counterparts, Black cowhands were celebrated on photo postcards, in films, in illustrations, and—as shown here—in dress-up at photography studios.