Lawton Souvenir Views.

Lawton, Oklahoma: Joe B. Baker & Bro., 1907. 16mo, printed purple wrappers. [48] pp., numerous illus.

A very rare promotional view book documenting the town of Lawton, Oklahoma, just five years after it was founded, including numerous illustrations of the Native Americans of the region.

This view book begins with a shot of Lawton’s first street, known as Goo-Goo Avenue. The caption reads: “Lawton was born a city in a night, and on the morning of August 6th, 1901, when the lot sale began, twenty thousand people surrounded the town site, camped in tents.” Included here are various scenes in and around Lawton and Comanche County, including homes of Lawton notables, town churches, banks, municipal buildings, oil and gas operations, summits, fishing holes, and so on. One shot shows the “Roosevelt Elm,” beneath which President Teddy Roosevelt camped. Several photos capture farm scenes where men are shown laboring; “a lovers’ retreat and pleasure spot”; hunters with dead game animals; a man sporting some 25 ears of corn weighing 60 lbs, etc. Also included are images of Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Indians, featuring chieftains, newlywed couples, students, “squaws,” babies, and Comanche warriors, police, and singers. A few of the chiefs are profiled.

OCLC records only “Eighty-four images taken from book Lawton Souvenir Views” at the Library of Congress. No other records or holdings noted.

CONDITION: Good, wrappers faded, more so at edges, upper and lower fore-corners of front wrapper chipped.