Slaughtering Establishment of Harden and Hardman, Laramie,Wyo

Ink drawing with watercolor paint on paper. "Slaughtering Establishment of Harden and Hardman, Laramie, Wyoming" by Merritt Dana Houghton. It depicts an open, grass covered foreground. In the middle ground there are men, horses and wagons in front of small buildings with smoke stacks, cattle and fencing. Hills and mountains line the background.

Merritt Dana "M.D." Houghton (1846-1919) came to Wyoming from Michigan in 1875. He established an art and photography studio in Rawlins, Wyoming and later worked as a teacher in the town of Jelm. Houghton produced dozens of pen and ink drawings of Wyoming mining, ranching, town, and fort scenes in the late 1800s. His pictures are a valuable record of the state’s early heritage. Houghton died in the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1919.