Choir of Girls in Butte, Montana

Butte, Montana had more money than God in between the 1880s and 1920s.  Home of the largest copper mines in North America and the richest and most powerful people in the booming West, Butte was the state's economic powerhouse.  The wealthy Copper Kings had families and, way out there in the middle of nowhere, they wanted to provide their daughters and sons with a lifestyle the equal of any in the world. Consequently, culture had to be imported into Butte,  a necessary part of a fine education, which the Copper Kings were eager to provide their children, bringing private schools to Butte for the first time.So - shock as it was to me - way out there in wind swept Butte, in 1900, a girls choir could be dressed like they came from Paris, and be posed so cleverly by a 'country' photographer in this pyramidal formation.  The pretty girls  appear well practiced and comfortable in their robes, clearly well-fed and well cared for, and earnest in their desire for a good photo.