Rodeo post cards 1920-1940
One of my clients came in with a great idea—He wanted a tattoo of a classic rodeo scene. A man trying to hold himself steady on the back of a wild, bucking horse. The kind of moment that’s over in seconds but feels huge.
Riding Straight Up”, taken by Foster Photo Co. in Miles City, Montana
Photographed by R.R. Doubleday in 1941, this image captures Al Wilkenson mid-ride on a bronco named Torpedo.
horse named Glasseye “Smoky Branch Riding”, and it’s credited to R.R. Doubleday, a well-known rodeo photographer of that time.
To start working on it, I dug into some vintage rodeo archives and came across two incredible old photographs. They immediately pulled me in. Raw energy, perfect timing, and a deep connection to the early days of American rodeo.
The first photo shows a rider mid-air on a horse named Glasseye—all four hooves off the ground. The caption reads “Smoky Branch Riding”, and it's credited to R.R. Doubleday, one of the most recognized rodeo photographers of the time. The rider’s posture—hat raised, back arched, body suspended—captures that impossible sliver of time between control and chaos. Just before the fall, or the triumph.
The second photo is titled “Riding Straight Up”, taken by Foster Photo Co. in Miles City, Montana, one of the old rodeo capitals. This one might actually show a woman riding. The horse launches nearly vertical, kicking against the sky. The dust hangs low, the crowd blurs into the background. Everything is sharp and quiet, like a held breath.
And then there’s a third.
Al Wilkenson on Torpedo, shot in 1941 by R.R. Doubleday. The name fits the image—both horse and rider blasting forward like a missile. The horse’s body folds and lifts in mid-buck, legs tucked under, mouth open. Wilkenson’s form is taut, airborne, one hand thrown back for balance. In the background: nothing but dirt and distant motion. It’s stripped down, raw, and perfectly timed.
These images were likely taken between the 1920s and 1940s. They may have been sold as postcards or handed out at rodeo grounds. But they’re more than souvenirs. They’re fragments of something larger—snapshots of a world that moved fast and hit hard. A world built on grit, performance, survival, and pride.
What stays with me is the sense of suspension.
That breath between the rise and the fall.
Each image captures a rider not just holding on to a horse—but to something deeper. A legacy. A code.
The horse, caught mid-flight, becomes something otherworldly. Not just wild—but almost mythic.
I’ve shared the drawings I made from these photographs in this post too.
They’re small flashes—my way of carrying that tension, that motion, that history into tattoo form.
Trying to freeze that impossible second—and make it stay.
Jorge
R.R. Doubleday – Rodeo Photographer Bio (Encyclopedia of Arkansas)
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/robert-r-doubleday-16323/
Foster Photo Co. – Miles City Rodeo Photography Archive
https://mtmemory.org/digital/collection/p16013coll27/id/0 (Montana Memory Project)
History of Bronc Riding – ProRodeo Hall of Fame
https://www.prorodeohalloffame.com/events/broncriding-history/
Vintage Rodeo Postcards Collection – Digital Public Library of America
https://dp.la/search?q=rodeo+postcards
Rodeo in Early 20th Century America – Smithsonian Magazine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rodeo-american-west-heritage-180974849/