The outlaws who roamed the "Wild West" were principal characters in the imagination of nineteenth-century Americans. Popular myths of such personalities were depicted in cheap, sensational serials and were the highly prized subjects of photographers. Photographs of the infamous Jesse James depicted a charismatic outcast, seemingly beyond the reach of the law, while Solomon Butcher's "vignettes" portrayed colorful vigilante cowboys and settlers.

One of the earliest and most extensive series of pictures of political outlaws produced in the United States was made by Alexander Gardner, a Washington, D.C. based portrait photographer. Gardner was hired by the Secret Service in 1865 to document the aftermath of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He made full-length, profile, and full-face portraits of each of the Lincoln conspirators, a method that would become standard practice for law-enforcement photographers. Gardner attempted to capitalize on his retention of the majority of his negatives by selling cartes-de-visite (small pictures attached to calling-card-sized boards) and large-format prints of the story. However, the public, shattered by the Civil War, was more interested in the escapades of the "romantic" western outlaws.