Item MM 111160 Digital Photograph - Holden Brothers Circus, Man in 'Cowboy' Hat Spinning a Lasso in a Paddock, circa 1910

Description of Content

A man in a 'cow-boy' hat spinning a lasso in a field. An indigenous man is walking up by him. The photograph is hand-tinted. This photograph shows Ernie Holden rope spinning, circa 1910. His daughter Melba Ryan remembers: 'He was working the lasso up and down, around his body. 'Combo' George (right) helped put up the tents, and what ever else needed to be done. Most of the photographs of him in this album show him working with horses, either riding bucking animals, saddling and bridling them. The moleskins and shirt he was wearing suggest a man who worked with horses. There is a wagon visible behind them. The circus performers worked out in the open, with 'side wall curtains', rather than a 'big top' in those days. The circus travelled in wagons at this time in the early 1900s, until the 1920s.' This was well before Melba Ryan (nee Holden) was born. She is unsure of the location.