Roy Rogers Recreation
Part of a Series: Exploring the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive
The Autry Institute is currently processing the generously donated business archive of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. At the beginning of each month, the Autry Libraries blog will feature highlights from the collection in anticipation of the processing’s completion.
The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive is primarily a record of their business as performers, though there are materials that highlight activities they were involved in outside of their work. Two of Roy Rogers’ recreational hobbies were racing pigeons and going hunting. Take a look at some of the items from the Archive representing this part of Rogers’ life:
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- Though the pigeons are not in the archive, several pedigree charts make an appearance. Pedigree Tabulation for Racing Pigeons, undated, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
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- Pedigree Tabulation for Racing Pigeons, undated, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
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- Header for results for the Foothill Racing Pigeon Concourse of Southern California, April 29, 1945, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
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- Photograph captioned, “At 6:20 a.m. on Sept. 1, 1962, 35-minutes after the hunt officially began, Roy Rogers stretched his lean frame out on the rocky soil amid the sagebrush of Wyoming’s Upper Sweetwater River country and, with the only bullet allowed him, shot and killed the first buck antelope of the day in the world-famous Lander One Shot Antelope Hunt.” Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
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![In 1959 the Ohio Department of Natural Resources wrote to Roy Rogers and requested color transparencies of him posing with one or two of their hunting safety posters. Rogers' Publicity Director Carl Schroeder replied in a December 7, 1959 letter that Rogers was happy to pose for the pictures, and "in the field of sports [Rogers] knew of no cause more important than your campaign for safe hunting.” Cover of The Ohio Conservation Bulletin, Volume 24, Number 1, January 1960, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.](http://autrylibraries.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/rogersevans-hunting2.jpg?w=116&h=150)
- In 1959 the Ohio Department of Natural Resources wrote to Roy Rogers and requested color transparencies of him posing with one or two of their hunting safety posters. Rogers’ Publicity Director Carl Schroeder replied in a December 7, 1959 letter that Rogers was happy to pose for the pictures, and “in the field of sports [Rogers] knew of no cause more important than your campaign for safe hunting.” Cover of The Ohio Conservation Bulletin, Volume 24, Number 1, January 1960, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
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- The Ohio Conservation Bulletin cover story centered on the Hunter Safety Program, based on a program started by the National Rifle Association. The Program hoped to reach “as many groups of youngsters as possible” in order to teach them “the proper and safe way to handle guns.” It seemed a natural match for Rogers to agree to promote Ohio’s Hunter Safety Program due to his interest in hunting, his Ohio roots, and his position as a role model whose characters often used guns. Roy Rogers carries a gun on the cover of this Spanish language comic book. Volume 3, Number 36, August 1, 1955, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
