7.3b - Solomon D. Butcher poses with his first Nebraska home, a prairie dugout where he survived the winter of 1880 after heading west from Virginia. After a two-week career as a farmer and an inconclusive stint as a medical student, Butcher became an itinerant photographer, chronicling the homesteads of Custer County, Nebraska, and selling prints of his portraits to the proud pioneers.

(Nebraska State Historical Society)