Wisconsin Historians Puzzle over an 1870s Dead Horse Photograph

By Linda Orlando

A black and white photograph taken in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, between 1876 and 1884 has attracted the attention and speculation of people all across the country after it was featured in a newspaper’s calendar for 2007. When readers began to question the newspaper about its origins, the paper published a story about it. And once the Internet got hold of the story, it spread like wildfire.

"This thing has gotten more mileage than you can shake a stick at," said Scott Prescher. A copy of the dead horse photo hangs in Prescher’s restaurant in Sheboygan. "It’s just a funny picture," Prescher said, laughing. "He is sitting on there with a top hat like he had somewhere special to go and his horse just croaked in the middle of the road."

For more than 20 years, the picture has been part of the collection of the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center. Beth Dipple, director of the center, said that the picture makes her laugh every time she sees it. "But this time the novelty is everybody else seeing it for the first time. The whole world is seeing it now," she said.

The Sheboygan Press has received more than 50 phone calls and e-mails discussing the photograph, with people offering suggestions and theories about exactly it depicts. Dibble said that the newspaper published the photo in 1974, mainly to focus attention on the buildings in the picture. The caption that accompanied the photo then said that the man who provided the image to the newspaper had received it from a friend and had no idea where it came from or what it meant.

According to Dipple, the only certainties about the picture are that it was taken at South Eighth Street and Indiana Avenue between 1876 and 1884. That time frame is certain because of a bridge that appears over the Sheboygan River in the background, and the lack of railroad tracks, which were installed in 1884. During that time, Dipple said, city regulations required people to stay with their dead horses until they were picked up and disposed of, so that may be the story behind the photograph.

"Who knows why somebody would take a picture of it," she said. "People had weird senses of humor then just like they do now. Or he was practicing using his new camera. I don't know. That is one of those things that I doubt we will ever know." Bill Wangemann, who has been Sheboygan’s city historian since 1986, thinks the photograph is probably a gag. "I always took it to be just somebody's weird idea of a joke," the 71-year-old historian said. "'Hey Joe, go out there and sit on that dead horse and I'll take your picture.' Maybe he was a friend of the photographer."