The upcoming SCLT program on Tuesday, Jan. 11, at 10:30 a.m. at The Hub on Smith featuring Tempe Javitz, will be via Zoom. Javitz, will speak about her upcoming book featuring the photographs of her grandmother, Jessamine Spear Johnson who was an early photographic artist in Wyoming & Montana. Jessamine was the daughter of Willis Spear, rancher and founder of Spear-O-Wigwam in the Bighorn Mountains. Jessamine’s younger sister, Elsa Spear Byron, was also a well-known photographer who lived in Big Horn.
Javitz grew up on a cattle ranch in SE Montana and attended schools in Sheridan. She was Sheridan WYO Rodeo Queen in 1969. She graduated from SHS in 1967 and went to California for college, where she met her husband, Hal. Javitz moved to the Bay Area in 1971.
Javitz will also speak about how she conserved and cataloged Jessamine’s photos, while preserving Jessamine’s impressive span of photographic techniques and wide breadth of themes. Using the rich history Javitz inherited, she has compiled a book about Jessamine’s life and her photography. Jessamine Spear Johnson: A Photographic Artist of the Changing West is scheduled to be published by the South Dakota Historical Society Press in late 2022.
