Hides Behind Bulls

Another dip into the steamer trunk brought up this intriguing series of photos.

First, we have this man dressed in work clothes but sporting a fabulous fedora as he shows off a bull.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

No ID on him. Another picture, however, has these notes on the back:



The Nolte brothers, as we know, were Henry and Louis. Could Fedora Guy be one of them? The steamer trunk's owner examined the picture and said, "That sure looks like Henry Nolte … but maybe you shouldn't bet money on it." He was a boy of ten the last time he saw Henry, and that was 80 years ago. (The fact that the photos are printed on Velox paper doesn't help us, since that type of paper was in use throughout Henry's lifetime and for decades after his death.)

This is the photo with the notes on the back:



In this and many other photos, Fedora Guy adopted the technique of crouching behind the animal he's showing off, so that his hat won't distract from the bovine beauty.


Let's play "Spot the Guy Behind the Cattle"!

















Well, that was fun!


Another way not to outshine the cattle was to hold the animal by a long rope or pole and stand outside the shot:



… Oops. (From what I can see of that man, he's dressed differently — overalls — so it may not be Fedora Guy, or it may be another day. He's wearing a hat, but you can barely see its shape.)


Practice makes perfect:




Give the guy a hand!



There's a few more like that, but I think we've seen enough.


One last picture! It's similar in subject matter and style, but the physical photo seems to have a different finish.



Is that even Fedora Guy? He's dressed differently from the first picture (hat included). Really, I can't see his face clearly enough to judge whether it's the same man.


One last comment: in the first photo in this post, there is a one-story building in the background that appears to sit on a cement foundation. The building is long; if it is also narrow, then it might possibly be the source of that long, narrow cement foundation that remains among the trees between Big Maple Lake and the Deep River. However, beyond the handwritten note suggesting a link between the Nolte brothers and these photos, we have no information about where these photos were shot, and I can't say I recognize any of these buildings from the 1947 property assessment report, so I have little basis to assert that this is the Nolte farm. On the other hand, if Fedora Guy is Henry Nolte, then at least 13 years of possible alterations passed between these photos and the property assessment photos.