Encampment rancher and businesswoman Lora Webb Nichols, famous for her photography, was one of the first friends a 19-year-old Nancy Anderson made when she came to Wyoming from Virginia. <\/p>\n
Her plans were solid. She was going to become an old maid teacher for the school at the Beer Mug Ranch north of Hanna.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for her, life doesn\u2019t always go as planned. <\/p>\n
Anderson not only made new friends like Nichols, but she also met her future husband, living a great life with him in Coyote Canyon for 52 years. <\/p>\n
During all that time, Anderson remained great friends with Nichols who was, from almost the beginning, like a member of her family. <\/p>\n
Anderson was even with her friend when Nichols died in 1962. <\/p>\n
But Anderson didn\u2019t truly get to know her friend until after Nichols’ death.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when she really started studying the thousands of photographs her friend had taken over her lifetime, as well as the corresponding diary entries.<\/p>\n
She wrote daily for 65 years, starting when she was just 13 years old and continuing to her last day of life.<\/p>\n
Looking through her friend\u2019s eyes, Anderson began to see a brilliant and sensitive soul, looking thoughtfully at the world. <\/p>\n
What that created was unique \u2014 a not-often-seen female vantage point of the West at a time when the West was busy making itself into a gritty, mostly male, thing of legend.<\/p>\n
Nichols\u2019 photos, unlike most of what photographers of the time period took, also weren\u2019t stiffly posed studio setups, where everyone was wearing their Sunday best. <\/p>\n
Nichols took candid shots of real people, wearing their real clothes, living their real lives. <\/p>\n
A Life-Changing Birthday Present<\/p>\n
Nichols received her first camera from her fianc\u00e9 and first husband, Bert Oldman. <\/p>\n
He\u2019d come to Encampment during the copper boom and wooed his bride-to-be with a Kodak camera hand-carried to her door on her 16th birthday. <\/p>\n
The camera was an instant hit and became an integral part of Nichols\u2019 daily life. <\/p>\n
She would ultimately divorce Oldman a decade later, not long after their second child was born, complaining that he often neglected his family, leaving them to fend for themselves for long periods of time. <\/p>\n
But she never put down the camera. It was her eye on the world. <\/p>\n
From 1899 until her death in 1962, Nichols took about 23,500 photographs of life bustling all around her.<\/p>\n
Absolutely Breathtaking <\/p>\n
Not all of Nichols\u2019 subjects were women, but many were. <\/p>\n
She took intimate photographs of them, capturing their quiet tenacity as well as moments of tenderness and vulnerability \u2014 all at a time when few thought to record any history of women at all.<\/p>\n
The women who look out from Nichols’ photographs are haunting and compelling. <\/p>\n
Like the photo of Nichols\u2019 friend Nora Fleming nursing her baby in the sun. One breast peeks out from her bodice while she gazes with apparent mischief in her eye at the photographer. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s another of her friend Mary Anderson bending at the waist to comb out hair that\u2019s almost as long as the girl is tall. <\/p>\n
She did all that to pile the freshly combed hair back on top of her head in a tight bun, away from public view.<\/p>\n
There are whimsical moments, too, like her friend Lizzie leaning on a crutch while a pet cat perches precariously on Lizzie\u2019s hip, nibbling delicately at a treat held high. <\/p>\n
The moment of levity contrasts with a starker backdrop of cut timber and otherwise empty landscape, speaking to much work ahead in a pioneer community that was still building itself from the ground up. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, this collection is an endless source for interpreting Wyoming during her time frame,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cEndless. Sixty-five years of diary, almost 24,000 images. There are diaries, letters, objects. The collection is absolutely breathtaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Lora](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Nancy-Anderson-MixCollage-09-Nov-2025-08-27-AM-595-11.9.25.jpg\")
Lora Webb Nichols Home in Encampment, Wyoming. (Courtesy Photo)![\"Nancy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Nancy-Anderson-20250913_144304-11.9.25.jpg\")
Nancy Anderson talks about history at the Hanna Museum. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Nancy-Anderson-A-woman-feeding-a-pet-cat-with-a-treat-in-Encampment-Wyoming-11.9.25.jpg\")
A woman feeding a pet cat with a treat in Encampment, Wyoming, in this photo by Lora Webb Nichols. (Courtesy Photo)![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Nancy-Anderson-A-woman-combs-out-her-long-hair-11.9.25.jpg.jpg\")
A woman combs out her long hair in this photo by Lora Webb Nichols. (Courtesy Photo)Arrow leftArrow rightAs If By Incantation<\/p>\n
Anderson and her late husband, Victor, helped lead a charge to preserve Nichols\u2019 work in the 1990s, after it was discovered that the chemicals that had been used to develop these early photographs were likely to destroy them in time. <\/p>\n
As luck would have it, an educator from Chicago who had retired to Hanna happened to know exactly what Anderson needed to do to get started.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we needed somebody to show us how to do something or do something for us, they just appeared, as if by some kind of incantation,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cThe project was blessed with so many people. I wish I could name them all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saving her friend\u2019s photos was one thing. Making them more accessible to researchers and the public has been another. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s a journey Anderson is still undertaking, but a great deal of help came from an accidental encounter \u2014 another of those seemingly summoned to the cause, as if by incantation. <\/p>\n
Nicole Jean Hill, a professor of art with Humboldt State University, was visiting the area as an artist in residence at the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts. <\/p>\n
She discovered the photos on a day trip to Encampment, which she visited because she loved the town\u2019s name. <\/p>\n
While visiting the Grand Encampment Museum, she noticed they claimed to have a photo collection with 24,000 photos by one pioneer photographer, and a woman at that.<\/p>\n
At first she didn\u2019t believe it. It seemed like a typo. <\/p>\n
The largest pioneer photography collection she had ever heard of was that of central Nebraska\u2019s Solomon Butcher. His was just 3,000 negatives. <\/p>\n
To think a woman had taken so many photographs, starting at the age of 16, seemed incredibly implausible. <\/p>\n
But it was also incredibly intriguing, and that brought her back to Encampment to find out more about the Nichols collection. <\/p>\n
Eventually, through her work, the digital format of the collection was transformed to a more accessible one. <\/p>\n
Arrangements were also made for the negatives themselves to be held at the Wyoming University\u2019s American Heritage Archive. <\/p>\n
Saving The Heap-O-Livin’ Home<\/p>\n
Anderson hasn\u2019t stopped working to bring Nichols\u2019 work to light. <\/p>\n
She and other volunteers are now working to restore and preserve Nichols\u2019 home, which Anderson bought in 1962 after her friend died. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope to make this property something that really honors Wyoming\u2019s pioneer photographer,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe want to allow people to step back into Lora\u2019s time and her ambiance.\u201d<\/p>\n
One possibility is to create an artist\u2019s residency. That will be difficult, Anderson acknowledged.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerally, artist residencies are undertaken by people or groups with lots of means,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s just really important to kind of prove that a group of people, very usual people, in a Wyoming small town can undertake such a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long-term, Anderson hopes to see a gallery of Nichols\u2019 work as part of the property so that visiting scholars can see where she worked and what she produced in the same place.<\/p>\n
In addition to preserving the home, Anderson and her group have succeeded in listing the house in Encampment on the National Register of Historic Places. <\/p>\n
A new sign was just installed at what Nichols called the \u201cHeap-o-Livin\u2019\u201d home.<\/p>\n
![\"Lora](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Nancy-Anderson-Lora-Webb-Nichols-at-work-in-Encampment-11.9.25.jpg.jpg\")
Lora Webb Nichols at work in Encampment. (Courtesy Photo)What Holds Wyoming Together<\/p>\n
Nichols\u2019s favorite quote was always, \u201cAll that holds Wyoming together is baling wire and capable women,\u201d Anderson said, adding that her friend personified that.<\/p>\n
Nichols\u2019 home is still largely just as it was at the turn of the century, Anderson said, with original woodwork, the fireplace, and a staircase. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a marvelous old Queen Anne, eclectic Victorian house,\u201d she said. \u201cIt has a wide front porch with pillars. It\u2019s a small house, although when it was built, it was kind of the Nob Hill region. <\/p>\n
“It was up in the more elite part of Encampment, shall we say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson\u2019s favorite features in the home are its staircase and fireplace, which she calls the \u201cglories\u201d of the house. <\/p>\n
Indoor plumbing has been added as part of the preservation work, along with a remodeled kitchen. But the bathroom still has its old, ornate clawfoot iron tub, and the diamond-shaped windows are still original.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe renovations have mostly been to just accommodate living in it,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe try to leave things untouched. We\u2019re just bringing out what\u2019s already been there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unexpected Knocks<\/p>\n
There\u2019s buzz around Nichols\u2019 work not just in America, but Europeans are taking note of the female photographer who made so many compelling and artistic images behind the curtains of the authentic West.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the publicity has brought us researchers, and they\u2019re currently working on Lora Webb Nichols projects,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cAnd they did come and just stay at Encampment. <\/p>\n
“Some of them were even here in the house. It\u2019s just given us good wind to our sails to see that, worldwide, Lora holds great interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill, for one, has written a couple of books with images by Nichols along with words from her diaries. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a researcher from Paris has been to Encampment, making\u200b 50 hours of film footage, including interviews with many of the people living in the vicinity. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a prize-winning couple in historic documentaries in Europe,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cSo we\u2019re very excited she chose Lora for this major project.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also been a historian from Poland who has created an exhibit in her country that features Nichols\u2019 work.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple of the people in our group actually went to Poland and presented before the film community there,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cSo we\u2019re already out there, and we really have exciting things going. <\/p>\n
“Nicole\u2019s recent book, which has just arrived here, has had glowing reviews internationally. <\/p>\n
So there\u2019s a lot to celebrate, and we celebrate by saving this property,\u201d Anderson continued. “There will be nothing like preserving Lora in place, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the buzz has been building, Anderson has even had strangers showing up at her door in Encampment, hoping to see the place where Nichols lived and worked. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019m going to have to keep the floor mopped,\u201d Anderson said, chuckling a little bit. \u201cBut I would welcome them. They\u2019d need to visit the museum, and we need to arrange trips to the places where Lora did her photographs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the places Nichols favored for her photography, including her favorite photography rock, are still in the area. <\/p>\n
That’s something Anderson hopes will be as endless as the Nichols\u2019 photography collection, when it comes to this new and rich vein of tourism gold in Encampment.<\/p>\n