FORT SMITH -- A box full of photographs Betty Wilfong once regarded as trash is being called a major step forward in building the U.S. Marshals Museum collections.
"I'll be honest, I thought it was junk," Wilfong, of Little Rock, said of the stack of photographs her grandfather Joseph Killian collected of Fort Smith's notorious criminals from the city's frontier days.
Wilfong, whose maiden name was Duffin, was born and raised in Fort Smith and moved to Little Rock after her marriage in 1952, she said.
Wilfong returned to Fort Smith on Monday to sign the papers donating the photographs to the museum in her grandfather's name. She said Killian, who worked as a photographer for the Fort Smith Times Record and Southwest American newspapers -- forerunners of the current Southwest Times Record -- for several years, collected and saved the photographs from the newspapers' archives.
There are photographs taken for the newspapers of the Doolin-Dalton gang, Ned Christie, Cherokee Bill, the Rufus Black Gang and Belle Starr, according to a news release from the museum.
Museum curator Jessica Hougen said there also are photos of several lesser-known criminals from the Judge Isaac C. Parker era that will give the museum an opportunity to tell their stories. Many of those criminals were tracked down by members of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Wilfong said she was surprised that the photos, kept in an old box and stuck in a cabinet, had survived passage from Killian to her parents to her without being thrown away.
She's excited now that the photos have been thought to have enough historical significance to be displayed in the museum.
"I'm just tickled that someone will be able to use them and let other people see them because, to me, they're a valuable part of the history of Fort Smith," she said.
Wilfong had not thought much about the photos until an acquaintance, Bill Staed of Fort Smith, visited her and she told him about the old pictures. He took the photos back to Fort Smith with him and helped bring them to the attention of museum officials.
Hougen also credited Beth Templeton of Belle Starr Antiques in Fort Smith and museum supporters Pat and David Hightower for helping bring the photographs to light.
Hougen said Monday that it was too early to decide how the museum will use the photographs.
First, she said, they will be digitally scanned so they can be put on the museum's website. They also may be used as teasers and in promotional material, she said.
"A collection of this size and scope, and with the story behind it, it will allow me a great opportunity for a temporary exhibit," Hougen said.
The photographs will fit well into the museum's Frontier Marshals Gallery, she said, although because of the large number of photographs, they may not be displayed all at once.
Wilfong also donated the early 20th-century camera her grandfather used and a chunk of old wood that he saved, about 18 inches long with faded white paint, that she said was from the original Fort Smith gallows.
NW News on 05/05/2015