Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

June 2026 Vernacular Photo History Auction

Wed, Jun 24, 2026 11:00AM EDT
  2026-06-24 11:00:00 2026-06-24 11:00:00 America/New_York Michael Lehr Michael Lehr : June 2026 Vernacular Photo History Auction https://auction.michaellehrantiques.com/auctions/michael-lehr-antiques/june-2026-vernacular-photo-history-auction-23574
Our June 2026 auction presents a focused and exceptional selection of historical photographs spanning the 1840s through the early twentieth century, with unusual depth in named subjects, rare formats, and documented provenance anchored by strong vernacular material that rewards close looking.
Michael Lehr Antiques info@michaellehrantiques.com
Lot 317

Cabinet Card, Logging Crew and Ox Team with Felled Log, PNW

Estimate: $100 - $200
Current Bid
$50

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$100 $10
$200 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $5,000
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
Approximately twenty loggers pose alongside a massive felled conifer being hauled by a long team of paired oxen in this albumen print cabinet card documenting Pacific Coast logging operations, circa 1875 to 1895. The crew stands atop and alongside the log, which stretches nearly the full width of the frame; the ox team, numbering at least ten to twelve animals yoked in pairs, extends forward toward the camera along a cleared skid road. No photographer's imprint appears on the plain pink-tinted reverse.

The men wear the standard working dress of the period, wool shirts, suspenders, wide-brimmed hats, and heavy boots, and several carry tools including peaveys and cant hooks. The felled log dwarfs the men standing on its upper surface, its diameter suggesting a tree of several centuries' growth. The surrounding forest of tall Douglas-fir or redwood trunks, cleared of undergrowth and littered with slash, rises into the upper portion of the frame and provides dramatic scale.

Ox team logging photographs from the Pacific Coast old-growth forests of California, Oregon, or Washington are among the most historically compelling occupational images of the nineteenth-century American West, documenting an industry and a landscape that were rapidly transformed in the decades following the arrival of the transcontinental railroad. The scale of both the crew and the log make this an exceptional example of the genre.

Available payment options

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • Amex
  • Diners
  • Discover
  • JCB
  • Union Pay
PayPal

All SHIPPING IS FREE for purchases above $500, buyers to pay insurance at $2 per $100.