Archives West Finding Aid

Dr. Richard Buswell was born in Helena, Montana on January 24, 1945 to Howard and Agatha Virginia Arnaud Buswell. He graduated from Helena High School in 1963, publishing some of his early photographs in the Nugget, the Helena High School newspaper. Between 1963 and 1966 he attended Carroll College, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Biology. He earned his medical degree from Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland in 1970. A year later he purchased his first camera, a Nikkormat, and began taking photographs of Montana ghost towns, mining camps, and homesteads. In 1974 he married Sue Ann Vinkovich, and the couple would have three children: Erica, Stephanie, and Timothy. Dr. Buswell has presented over thirty solo and group exhibitions across the nation. He has also published several collections of his photographic work, including a book entitled, "Echoes: A Visual Reflection."

Lee Silliman was a high school physics, chemistry, and mathematics instructor for forty-three years. He was also the part-time photo archivist for the Powell County Museum and Arts Foundation in Deer Lodge for twenty-six years. He began his work with photography in 1979, and built his own darkroom in 1983. Silliman has assembled and circulated fifteen different exhibitions that have been displayed in more than ninety institutions throughout Montana and ten other states since 1988.