Evelyn Jephson Flower Cameron came to eastern Montana from England with her husband, Ewen, in 1889. They were on their honeymoon and while other members of their class went to Paris or Rome, they came to this rough country--to hunt. And liked it so much they stayed.

It was not easy to survive. They bred polo ponies but the trip back to England was too much for the animals. They grew and sold garden produce. They took in boarders, aristocrats like themselves, and it was one of those boarders who introduced Mrs. Cameron to photography.

She bought a camera from the Sears Roebuck catalog in 1900 and, lugging a huge box camera, a tripod and bulky glass negative plates, went out by horseback to record life in the country and tiny towns. By 1904, she was selling the photographs: 25 cents for mounted prints - $5 for albums, which included 24 prints. Some of those albums are treasured by families today - one went to Ireland and back. Like other early photographers, she made postcard prints which could be mailed to friends and relatives back East. Mrs. Cameron's wildlife photographs illustrated articles in ornithological magazines written by Cameron, a trained naturalist.

After her husband's death in 1914, Mrs. Cameron continued ranching alone - and taking photographs. By the time she died in 1928, this British aristocrat had produced an incredible photographic record of a pioneer era in America and of the people who made it what it was.

The people whose pictures she took, who admired how hard she worked even those who were startled by her behavior, called her "Lady Cameron", based apparently on the fact that she was their idea of a real lady, even when she was scrubbing floors, feeding chickens or breaking broncs.