Women and Horses Revisited: Charles Rumph Photography

Jun 3, 2023 - Sep 17, 2023

Click Here to Visit the Online Silent Auction and Sale

UPDATE: The exhibition and auction of Charles Rumph’s equestrian photographs closes this Sunday. Do not miss this opportunity to own a beautiful image celebrating women in the equestrian world.

The collection was donated by Rumph's wife Shirley Z. Johnson (1940–2021) with the goal of honoring his important body of work and for collectors to be inspired to own them. Please visit the Library between September 14–17, 2023, 10 am–5 pm or call 540-687-6542 ext. 33 to place a bid or make an offer. All proceeds benefit the NSLM's Art Acquisition Fund.

The National Sporting Library & Museum (NSLM) is excited to announce the exhibition and silent auction of photography by Charles W. Rumph (American, 1932–2019). Women & Horses Revisited: Charles Rumph Photography, is a reinterpretation of Rumph’s 1996 landmark solo exhibition, Women & Horses: A Celebration, held at the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky. It was the culmination of a photographic project in which he documented women in the American equestrian world and the wide variety of roles they had come to embody at all ages—from enthusiasts to professionals. The exhibitions offers a comprehensive and evocative view of the 1990s horse industry. Some are quirky and others gritty, yet all of the photographs resonate with the talent and determination of the women who inspired Rumph’s vision.

“I am attempting to truly celebrate the skill, daring, and competence of women in all the various ways in which they are engaged with horses. I have recorded images of women – young and not so young – in most parts of the horse world: as farriers, veterinary surgeons, therapists, owners, trainers, jockeys, teachers, exercise riders, hunters, competitors – riding, using and caring for all breeds from thoroughbreds, saddlebreds, and standard breds, to ponies, draft horses and cutting horses. The exhibit illustrates the remarkable extent to which horses rely on and look to women.”
- Charles Rumph

After Rumph’s passing in 2019, his wife Shirley Z. Johnson (1940–2021), donated the collection, thousands of original slides, transparencies, photographs and archival materials to the NSLM with the plan that the majority of the photographic prints would be sold as a fundraiser after they were exhibited. Later, she bequeathed funding to create an online repository to preserve Rumph’s legacy and his tribute to women and horses. Today, the Charles Rumph Digital Archive is housed on NSLM’s Internet Archive and five photographs have been added to the NSLM’s permanent collection. It was Johnson’s profound wish that we celebrate Rumph’s accomplishment along with the capable women he highlighted, and it is with a deep sense of completion and honor that we are stewards of the digital repository and will present the exhibition, Women & Horses Revisited: Charles Rumph Photography along with the accompanying silent auction of photographic prints.

More information:

• Internet Archive: The Charles Rumph Digital Archive 
• Blog: "Chuck, Charlie, Charles Rumph"
• YouTube video:

Photographer Charles Rumph: Presentation by Shirley Z. Johnson