Photograph of a school group in 1902 or possibly earlier. The teacher, unidentified, is seated at center with two young girls resting their heads on her shoulder. Children are seated in the middle row, two additional girls resting their heads on the teacher's lab. The boys are seated on the floor in the front row. A list of students, with positions unspecified, is written on the back of the photograph.

Photograph of a street scene on Abilene (later Main) Street, looking north in the aftermath of a fire. The dirt road, lined with shops and storefronts along the side, is filled with furniture scattered across the span of the road. Cabinets, rocking chairs, dressers, and other boxes are haphazardly placed at center, in front of the post office and a store advertised by a giant boot above the awning (left) and both "The Stag" (unknown establishment) and the Legal Tender Saloon (right). A handful of people stand in the distance, around the furniture. A note on the back explains that the furniture was placed on the street due to the fire.

Patent for a new and improved animal trap.

Photograph of an antelope hunt south of Midland, with numerous hunters standing in a grass plain, holding rifles, with antelope carcasses laid out in front of them. Numerous horses, pulling carriages, stand in the back. A list of names are identified on the back, from right to left: Jesse Frizzell, Kate Frizzell (kneeling), unknown ("a cowboy - ?"), Jim Flanagan, Joe Curtis, unknown ("a cowboy - ?"), Arch Whitaker, Porter Rankin (child), Ewing Rankin.

Patent for a automatic cutoff for cisterns which prevents the first muddy water coming down a rain spout from going into the cistern by sending it into a separate waste pipe.

Photograph of Beatrice and Addison Wadley on November 15, 1906, shortly after their marriage. Addison stands behind a large tree log, while Beatrice stands in front in a dark-colored dress, both standing next to a wooden house.

Photograph of the six staff members of C. C. Watson's Printing Office, located on Marienfeld Street, standing outside a brick and metal building with a wooden shed attached.

Photograph of a cattle drive or display of Hereford cattle on an intersection of Main Street in Midland. The cattle are lined up with men along the sidewalk and the intersection, with a car on Main Street facing facing south at left.

Photograph of Charles Anderson, pitcher for the Midland baseball team. He poses as if to pitch a ball towards the photographer, standing in a field of trees.

Photograph of the courthouse in Midland, Texas, apparently under construction. The stone building has one level competed with wood framing beginning to be put in place for second story windows. Small trees partially obscure the building.

Photograph of the Cross Tie Cowboys, seated together in a clearing in the grasslands with a chuckwagon. Two men are seated next to or behind the chuckwagon, which carries supplies. Several horses stand in the back, behind several bushes. The cross tie brand was registered on April 29, 1902, originally owned by Newnie Ellie.

Photograph of the Dorsey Home in Midland, Texas. Three people stand on the porch, with a man standing in the front yard.

Patent for improvements in double-acting cylinder-pumps by making “the cages and check-valves detachable from the piston-cylinder without removing or disturbing either the casing or piston-cylinder and can be replaced in the same manner.” (Lines 18-22) Illustration in included.

Patent for double acting cylinder pumps capable of continuous operation and a continuous stream of water, including illustration.

Photograph of Downtown Midland, viewed from the southeast, after a fire that started on April 8, 1909, in the Llano Hotel. The hotel, mostly destroyed with some brick walls standing, is at center in front of the water tower, having collapsed due to the fire with debris scattered onto the main roads. The fire also destroyed the Midland Drug Store and Grocery, to the north of the Llano Hotel, leaving a dry goods store (with a Coca-Cola sign along the front) intact. Across the street from the hotel is the First National Bank, also severely damaged, its canopy partially destroyed at left. People walk among the ruins, inspecting the damage and conversing together.

Postcard of Eliza Rankin (wife of Finis Ewing Rankin) holding a rifle, aiming it straight at a rattlesnake outside a pen.

Postcard of Finis Ewing Rankin, kneeling next to a rattlesnake with a small knife in his hand outside a pen.

Photograph of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, a wooden church with a tall spire and arched windows.

Photograph of the First National Bank on the corner of Main and Wall Street in Midland, Texas. The bank is a two-storied building with a Neoclassical facade, Doric pillars, a wide and narrow pediment, and a rectangular entablature, on the front reading "FIRST NATIONAL BANK". Cars are parked in front of the building, and people stand on the corner of the sidewalk.

Photograph of Frank Sholte, aged 13, standing on a telegram pole with another friend in 1902. The telegram pole is in front of several storefronts along a dirt road (207 S Main Street, facing north), and the telegram lines hang above the two climbers in five crossbeams.

Photograph of a grape arbor in Midland, Texas. Grape vines, producing fruit, hang over a wooden pergola and its roof-shaped crossbeams, densely leafed. Under the pergola is a small wooden shelf on which are placed three melons. The pergola opens up to other portions of the arbor, where more plants grow with enough density to provide shade inside the pergola.

Photograph of a group of people parked with their cars in front of the Midland County Courthouse and the county jail (right). Several men lean on their cars, while other face forward on the paved road. A water tower to the left of the jail, a tower to the left of the courthouse supporting a bell, and power lines are visible around the courthouse square.

Photograph of the Herman Garrett family from their family house at 611 N Big Spring Street, arranged in three rows on the house's porch. In the back row, from left to right: Lillian Garrett Reiger, Dora Garrett Rankin, Al H. Garrett, Elizabeth Garrett, Neta Garrett Wilson, and H. M. Garrett (came to Midland in 1882). Middle row (both seated on chairs, from left): Neta Wilson's mother-in-law and Mrs. Herman (Lucy Ann) Garrett. Front row (both seated on porch): Luther Wilson, Bess Garrett Holmes, and Mike Garrett.

Photograph of the Horace Hardin Ranch in February 1902. The ranch and stable (center right) are covered in snow and ice, with a chicken wire fence in front of the buildings.