Antique Bovine Lithograph for James J. HIll | 1914

Here we have your typical antique lithograph of milking shorthorn cows in a dance line holding their pose, commissioned by one of the biggest tycoons of the turn of the century, James J. Hill. How the photographer G.S. Parsons convinced those cows to hold that pose, I'll never know. "Stay, cows!"All kidding aside, James J. Hill was serious about his premium cattle business. So much so that he paid a premier English animal photographer to produce the print on heavy paper in the early 1900s. The piece comes out of the James J. Hill estate. Here's the title and subtitle under the cow photo:Group of Milking Shorthorn CowsImported from England to St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A., by James J. Hilll, August, 1914. The image of the cows is so odd and interesting. By cutting and pasting all the cows into one frame, Parsons inadvertently produced one of the funkiest abstract images of cows this side of the Atlantic. They look like they're floating, possibly in the process of getting snatched up by a