Mystery Photo: Cowboys and a Clown

The previous Mystery Photos post on Perfect Duluth Day featured four different fake cowboy photos shot at Owl Studio in Duluth circa 1912. Another recently popped up on ebay and quickly sold, this time with some kind of clown joining the cowboys.

Perhaps the eBay description does the best job of articulating what is happening:

Studio real photo of three young men in costume. Two of them are dressed as cowboys, with gunbelts and very woolly chaps. The cowboy on the left is wearing a paisley scarf and holding a long rifle that reaches from the floor up to his chin. Both cowboys are smoking. The tall character in the middle seems to represent some goofy attempt at cross-dressing, with a boldly patterned dress, a pointed hat, and an Asian paper parasol.

The back of the card gives the Owl Studio’s address as 10 E. Superior St., which at the time was in the Brown Brothers Block. That building is long gone and the location is now a small plaza next to the Electric Fetus building that leads to the Duluth Lakewalk.

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