National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum receives 68,000-image rodeo photography archive donation

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum has received the James Cathey Rodeo Photography Collection, a gift of more than 68,000 negatives documenting rodeos, livestock shows and American Quarter Horse Association conformation photography from 1947 through the 1960s. The donation from the Cathey family expands the museum’s holdings as the steward of the largest rodeo photography archive. 

Selections from the collection are available online at the museum’s image portal. Additional photographs will go online as staff continue digitizing the material. 

Cathey was born in February 1917 in Childress County, Texas. He began his rodeo photography career in 1947 after returning from WWII service as a decorated airman in a B-17 Flying Fortress. Cathey photographed major rodeos and livestock events across the West, including the Santa Rosa Roundup, the Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth, the Texas State Fair, the Wyoming State Fair, the Houston Stock Show and Rodeo and the Laramie Steer Roping. His work documented bloodlines, champion horses and key figures in Western performance. 

Cathey supported the growth of the Girls Rodeo Association, the National High School Rodeo Association and the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. He published Powder Puff & Spurs, served as associate editor for rodeo at Back in the Saddle and contributed to Western Horseman, Hoofs & Horns and American Quarter Horse Journal. In 1951, one of his rodeo photographs was selected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York as one of the 100 Greatest News Photos of All Time. Cathey entered the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2018. 

“James Cathey was an outstanding photojournalist, as well as a visual historian of rodeo and Western performance,” said David Davis, chief curatorial officer at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. “His images document working animals, emerging stars and the transformation of the rodeo industry. It’s an important addition to our archives.” 

Cathey’s archive offers valuable material for researchers and historians of rodeo and the American Quarter Horse industry. 

“We are honored that the Cathey family chose the Museum as the permanent home for this extraordinary legacy,” said Pat Fitzgerald, the museum’s president and CEO. “Digitizing this material and making it accessible to the public ensures that future generations—scholars, rodeo athletes and families—can experience a remarkable visual history of American rodeo and Western culture.” 

Cathy's work stands alongside the Museum’s premier archives, including the Bern Gregory, DeVere Helfrich and Ralph R. Doubleday rodeo photograph collections. 

Cathey's archive offers critical context for researchers, breeders and historians of both rodeo and the American Quarter Horse industry. The Cathey collection will undergo multi-year cataloging and conservation while staff digitize and research the materials. 

“Placing our father’s life’s work with the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum was an easy decision,” said Craig Cathey, one of James Cathey’s four sons. “Dad loved The Cowboy, and the Museum has an unmatched commitment to preserving rodeo history and major photographic archives. We knew the collection would be protected and shared in a way that honors the scale and importance of his contribution to rodeo.”