Vaquero: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy (Photographs by Bill Wittliff)

Exhibition Dates: Sept 9 – Nov. 4

In the early 1970s, noted Texas historian Joe Frantz offered Bill Wittliff a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—to visit a ranch in northern Mexico where the vaqueros still worked cattle in traditional ways. Wittliff photographed the vaqueros as they went about daily chores that had changed little since the first Mexican cowherders learned to work cattle from a horse’s back. Wittliff captured the muscle, sweat, and drama behind a way of life that now exists only in memory and in the photographs included in this exhibition.

Vaquero is an exhibition created by the Wittliff Collections at the Alkek Library, Texas State University, presented in partnership with Humanities Texas, the state affiliate for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat from noon to 5PM
Irving Arts Center’s galleries are open for viewing free of charge during regular gallery hours Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 PM.