Wyoming
State Archives

Tom Carrigen was born on February 20, 1896 in East Chicago, Indiana and acmoved to Denver as a child with his family. After graduating from North Denver High he attended the University of Denver. With America’s entry into World War I, Carrigen served in the U.S. Army for two years. Following the end of the war he became a traveling salesman selling washing machines. After being fired demonstrating washing machines in Casper he took a job as a draftsman. In 1921, Carrigen married Eva Woodhams in Denver and returned to Casper to work as a projectionist at one of the local motion picture theatres.

In 1922, he opened a photography business in Casper. Operating the studio as a family business Carrigen worked together with Eva and daughter Eleanor for more than thirty-five years. During that time Carrigen amassed a large collection of images that included studio portraits, high school graduation photographs, social events, businesses, and natural and cultural landscapes. Carrigen suffered a stroke in 1958 ending his career and died in 1967.

The Thomas G. Carrigen Collection contains approximately 30,000 images. Carrigen’s work is an amazing representation of a self-trained professional photographer. His photographs are also a significant record that illustrates the evolution of the city of Casper. The cultural landscape images capture the energy and development of an oil producing city and its citizens through the early to mid twentieth century.