Posted by History Colorado on September 25, 2025
What’s the oldest photo of Colorado?
It was a curious question that recently sparked a deep dive into the historical record. So far, the most promising candidate appears to be the photo above, which the Library of Congress describes as “View of a Cheyenne village at Big Timbers [near Lamar], in present-day Colorado, with four large tipis standing at the edge of a wooded area. Frame with pemmican or hides hanging at the right, two figures, facing camera, standing to the left of center.”
Photographer Solomon Nunes Carvalho created this image during John C. Fremont’s 1853 expedition through Colorado. Fremont invited this young Jewish New York artist to accompany his expedition and document the journey. Sadly, almost all of Carvalho’s resulting 300 daguerreotypes (an early type of photograph) were later lost in a fire. This picture from Big Timbers is one of the few that survived.
The photo captures a profound moment in Colorado history—just five years after the conclusion of the Mexican-American War—when the land that became our state was still in the control of its Indigenous inhabitants. As we embark on the year of commemorations leading up to Colorado’s 150th birthday in August 2026, images like these are a reminder that the Colorado we know and love today was made through a process of exploration and expansion that often came at a cost for those who lived here before we became a state.
—Jim England, Publications Volunteer
–
Image: Photo by Solomon Nunes Carvalho, between 1853 and 1860. Courtesy of Library of Congress