Snapshots of Michigan female photographers.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]Very few professions in the creative arts were acceptable for women in the early nineteenth century. While a lady was expected to dabble in the fine arts as a hobby, pursuing an occupation in the arts was another matter. Yet, when circumstances forced a woman to get a job, working as a portrait photographer was considered an acceptable--if unorthodox--choice.
In the 1800s, less than five percent of Michigan's photographers were women. Early photography methods proved to be hard work, and juggling bulky equipment and toxic chemicals while cinched into a tight corset made it even more difficult.
During the first part of the century, photographers shot single-image daguerreotypes--long exposures of a posed subject captured on a silver-coated copper plate that was sensitized with iodine and bromine fumes then developed in mercury vapor. The introduction of wet-collodion plates in the mid-1800s allowed each negative to provide multiple prints but involved messy wet-plates that were quickly coated with silver nitrate just before the sitting and immediately plunged into a mercury-based bath afterward. It wasn't until portable dry-plate and celluloid cameras became available toward the end of the century that photography became easier.
Many young women got their start in photography as behind-the-scenes retouchers, colorists, and photomounters. Some inherited photography studios from their fathers. Others turned to photography to make a living after the death or abandonment of a husband. In an 1897 Ladies Home Journal article entitled "What a Woman Can Do with a Camera," female photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston explained that with "good common sense, unlimited patience to carry her through endless failures, equally unlimited tact, good taste, a quick eye, a talent for detail, and a genius for hard work," a woman might build a photography career to support herself and her children.
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Available information about early nineteenth century women photographers is scanty and often generates more questions than answers. This list highlights only a few of the pioneer female photography artists who worked behind the camera in early Michigan.
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LUCRETIA A. GILLETT--Saline
When Lucretia Gillett moved to Saline in 1858 with her parents, two younger sisters, and brother, she was 38 years old and considered an old maid. Born in 1820 in New York, her family lived in Illinois for several years. It was there that Lucretia and her younger brother, George, began learning photography. After settling in Saline, they opened a daguerreotype portrait gallery in the front room of the family home. A few years later, after George moved to Ann Arbor to start his own studio, Lucretia decided to run the Saline business on her own.
Always eager to learn new techniques, Lucretia updated to the new wet-collodion plate photography around 1867. To help with the workload, she hired Miss Laura A. Green, who lived at the Gillett home and worked as a studio assistant until she left to open her own photography gallery in Manchester in 1889.
Lucretia was always willing to share knowledge and encouragement with others who were interested in photography. When young Frank J. Haynes began visiting her studio as a boy, Lucretia probably had no idea that the seeds she planted would grow so tall. "F. Jay," as he was called, went on to become the official photographer for Yellowstone National Park and the Northern Pacific Railroad. He frequendy reflected on his early days learning photography in Lucretia's studio.
At the age of 70, in 1890, Lucretia sold her business to Ypsilanti photographer George Waterman. She was such a fixture in the community that he advertised his new business as "Miss Gillet's old stand." Lucretia then moved to live with her younger sisters in Long Beach, California, where she died in 1894.
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MARY PARSONS--Ypsilanti
John and Mary Parsons were married in Vermont in 1859 and began moving across the Midwest while working as teachers. In 1865, the couple setded in Ypsilanti. When local photographer J.A. Crane retired, John bought his equipment and opened a small studio above the town's post office. Though Mary helped with the business, most of her time was spent caring for their six children in an apartment next door.
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John suddenly became ill and died of consumption in 1874, and just a few months later, the disease also claimed their infant son. Mary recognized that the studio was her only means of support, so she hired an operator and took over both the printing and finishing work herself. As the business grew, she became known for her photographs of Michigan State Normal School's campus, as well as its students and faculty.
The Ypsilanti Commercial declared in 1874 that "Mrs. Parsons has been making improvements in the sky-light of her gallery, giving much quicker time in the taking of negatives and a nice effect for shadow pictures. She is trying to keep up with the times in all that will help to improve the art. Those wishing a good picture give her a call."
After almost 20 years managing her own business, Mary received a marriage proposal from Erastus Samson, a fellow native of Vermont and the owner of an Ypsilanti drugstore. Following their marriage, Mary sold all of her photography equipment and retired to a quiet life before passing away in 1918 at the age of 80.
Mary shared her thoughts about her unexpected career as a businesswoman and photographer in a book by Martha Louise Rayne, tided What Can a Woman Do: Or Her Position in the Business and Literary World: "For the benefit of any sister seeking a place among the limited situations for our sex, I would say that women can succeed in any department of the photograph business. I should not have chosen it as a life-work had not circumstances pressed me into service. My husband and myself were both teachers when we were married. He was a teacher of a commercial school when the war broke out and took so many of the class of young men that were beginning a business education that he dropped his professorship and took up photography. I learned printing of him, and afterwards, as his health failed, I assisted in different departments, and when he finally died, leaving me with a family of five little ones, I took his advice, and have carried on the work successfully enough to support my family ever since. I hope you will make it a successful medium in giving encouragement to our sex, compelled by adverse circumstances to support themselves, for all cannot be teachers, clerks, or seamstresses."
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SUSAN T. SPEECHLY/COOK-Manchester, Ann Arbor, Dundee
Susan Speechly was born in 1844 in Ann Arbor to English immigrant parents. In 1869, at the age of 18, she began what would become a lifelong career as a photographer. The Manchester Enterprise reported that local photographer E.A. Graham had secured the services of Miss S.T. Speechly of Ann Arbor in his studio. In only a few years, Susan had created a prolific business as a carte-de-visite artist in her rooms on the upper floors in Manchester.
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Eager for a new challenge, Susan left Manchester in 1873 to build a new studio in Ann Arbor. For the next 20 years, she worked as a popular photographer not only in Ann Arbor but also in Dundee, where she managed a second studio from 1886 to 1894.
Always an active member of her community, Susan served as treasurer of the Ann Arbor Prohibition Club and attended several National Photographic Association conventions.
While managing both studios in Ann Arbor and Dundee, Susan hired photographer Converse G. Cook, whom she married in 1886. Although some of her photos were stamped "S.T. Cook" following her marriage, the majority of her work continued to be labeled under her maiden name. Susan died in 1915 after a lustrous career and was buried at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Ann Arbor.
ESTHER ANN BOWLES-Wyandotte
In 1879, Michigan natives George and Esther Bowles were married and began farming on land adjacent to George's parents' farm in Kent County. George later became a minister, and Esther a photographer. By 1890, the couple had separated, and Esther relocated to Wyandotte to open a gallery specializing in cabinet portraits. She described her work as "hand finished portraits in crayon or pastel in the latest designs and finishes."
With an apparent knack for marketing, Ester frequently advertised sales and special offers in the local Wyandotte Herald. Her 1902 Christmas ad reminded clients to shop early: "To the Widows and Working Girls -The annual discount to you will begin October 16th and continue until December 1,1902. Anyone needing portraits for Xmas will need to send in orders early."
FEDORA E.D. BROWN-Grand Rapids
Fedora Brown, born in Iowa in 1857, spent her childhood in Grand Rapids. She first started as a saleslady for a local camera supply company before taking up photography as a career.
Unlike most contemporary female photographers of the period, Fedora was not interested in taking family portraits. Instead, she embraced the new technology of portable cameras and innovative techniques in pictorialism. Pictorial photographers did not use the camera to record a moment in time, such as a portrait or a special event, but rather displayed a subject, props, and environment to create an artistic, emotional image. A typical pictorial of the time could be recognized by its soft focus and warm-colored finish.
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Fedora was featured in several exhibits around the country, including the prestigious 1906 Women Photographers of America exhibition in Hartford, Connecticut, as well as me 1910 national convention of the Photographers' Association of America in Milwaukee, Minnesota.
Fedora also became a household name in Michigan following the 1904 publication of The Children's Garden, a book published by the Michigan Trust Company of Grand Rapids. Written by Eleanor Withey Willard with illustrations from photographs by Fedora, The Children's Garden told the story of children invited to explore the amazing garden of an old lady who lived next door. Fedora's photographs added a dreamlike quality to the book, which appealed to young families, and helped it become a popular bedtime story.
That same year, Fedora purchased a one-acre building site near the home of artist George H. Ford in the artist colony he called Beckmaze, located southwest of Grand Rapids in Wyoming, Michigan. Ford himself designed Fedora's "hut," a half-timber stucco cottage that included a chimney made of local fieldstone and small glass pieces from used camera plates.
During the final years of her life, Fedora illustrated a four-volume series called The Birds of California by Dr. William Leon Dawson. In 1929, she died unexpectedly in an automobile accident near her home.
AMELIA C. VAN BUREN-Detroit
Amelia Van Buren struggled during her entire adult life to achieve recognition as an artist, yet her claim to fame ultimately came from her serving as a model for another artist. Very few pieces of her work survive. Born in 1856 and raised in Detroit, Amelia was interested in oil painting and exhibited her work frequently at small shows in the Detroit area.
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In the early 1880s, Amelia and a friend, Eva Watson, moved to Philadelphia to study painting with famed American realist painter Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Eakins' teaching methods were quite controversial because they featured male and female nude models. Both young women were quickly drawn to Eakins' method of using photography first to compose his paintings, and as a result, Amelia turned from painting to work exclusively as a photographer. She took private photography lessons with Eakins and became lifelong friends with both him and his wife, Susan.
A chronic illness occasionally forced Amelia to return to Detroit for treatment. After several years, doctors diagnosed her with neurasthenia--a psychopathological term of that era that explained symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, neuralgia, and depression. In a letter to Susan, Amelia wrote, "I have at last discovered that the trouble with me is in the head. It is exhausted by worry or something or other and I must just have patience until it is rested ... so provoking to have nothing the matter with you and yet be everlastingly ill."
In 1891, Eakins painted a portrait of Amelia, simply tiding it "Miss Amelia Van Buren." It would become one of his most compelling works, as well as the piece that made Amelia's name famous. When the oil painting was first exhibited, it received a lackluster response. Eakins eventually gave it to Amelia. It was not until 1927 that the Phillips Collection of American Art in Washington, D.C., contacted Amelia about purchasing the painting. It remains on display today.
The museum catalog currently describes the painting as "an image of great psychological complexity. Her weary head leans on her curved hand, while her other hand rests in her lap. She looks absently towards but not into the strong light, which emanates from the left and defines her face. Eakins establishes in this passage Van Buren's character, her quiet strength and determination. And it is in this manner, through a portrait of his friend and fellow artist's contemplative state, that
Eakins comments on his own achievements at the end of a long, tumultuous career."
Amelia and Eva Watson later became partners in a photoengraving business and continued exhibiting photographs. Though some of Amelia's photos were included in the American Woman Photographers exhibit for the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, success always seemed to elude her.
Around the year 1920, Amelia moved to an artist colony in Tryon, North Carolina, where she died in 1942. None of her paintings survive today, and only a few photographs remain.
CHRISTIE A. MCKAY AND F. ADELL YOUNG-Marshall
Christie McKay and Adell Young shared a friendship and creative partnership that lasted a lifetime. Both women were the same age and grew up together in Romeo, Michigan--Christie's family emigrating from Canada and Adell's moving from Wisconsin. Christie practiced early photography skills while working as a retoucher for Pontiac photographers John H. Benson and Phillip H. Starke at their Benson & Starke Studio in 1886 and 1887.
In November 1887, the two women opened their own business in Marshall, Young & McKay Photographers. A local newspaper described the event: "After a period of 13 continuous years in photography in the pleasant apartments ever above John Bailer's grocery store, Ed Mast has finally sold out and will retire from the business for the present at least. Misses Young and McKay formerly of Romeo, Mich., are his successors, and they will undoubtedly produce satisfactory work and retain the large trade Mr. Mast has succeeded in working up. Both have had considerable experience and there is not the slightest reason why they should not succeed admirably."
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Christie and Adell managed the business successfully for more than 50 years. Both unmarried, the two women engaged in social entertaining, frequented community events, vacationed at Gull Lake, and traveled around the state to visit with family.
As prolific portrait photographers, the women were also known for photographing student and community groups. In 1909, the ladies of Gamma Delta Tau sorority gathered at the studio for a club picture. Christie and Adell used the photograph to market their services, writing, "It is a pleasure to have your photograph taken in our studio. It doesn't hurt at all! Young & McKay." In 1913, they photographed the Marshall High School graduating class and, two years later, the players and coaches of the 1915 Marshall High School Football Team.
Adell and Christie retired at the ages of 75 in 1935. Both moved to Battle Creek and lived the rest of their lives with longtime friend, Miss Stella Snyder. Adell passed away in 1937, and Christie died in 1941.
Deb Perry is a Michigan photographer and is grateful that corsets are no longer in fashion. She owns Deb Perry Studio: Photography & Graphic Arts in Traverse City and loves to travel throughout this beautiful state. You can see her photographs at www.debperrystudio.com.
Caption: Previous page: Thomas Eakins painted this portrait of Amelia Van Buren in 1891. (Photo courtesy of the Phillips Collection.) This page, top: Lucretia Gillett's name plate as it appeared on many of her photographs. This page, bottom: Lucretia Gillett was a Michigan pioneer of daguerr eotype and wet-collodion plate photography. (Both photos courtesy of the Saline Area Historical Society Archives.)
Caption: Frances Benjamin Johnston, a famous female photographer in the 1800s, is pictured below. She encouraged other women to build careers in photography. (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-64301.)
Caption: Top left: Mary Parsons' nameplate as it appeared on many of her photographs. Bottom left: After her husband's death, Mary Parsons took over his photography studio and managed it for the next 20 years. (Both photos courtesy of the Ann Arbor Chronide.) Top right: Susan Speechly's nameplate as it appeared on many of her photographs. Bottom right: Manchester resident Louise Merriman Kief as photographed by Susan Speechly. (Both photos courtesy of the Manchester Area Historical Society.)
Caption: Bottom left: Fedora Brown's dreamlike pictorial photographs served as illustrations for the popular 1904 book The Children's Garden. (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.) Right: A photograph of Amelia Van Buren, taken by Thomas Eakins in 1884. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Dietrich.)
Caption: The young women of Gamma Delta Tau were photographed by Young & McKay in 1909.
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| Author: | Perry, Deb |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Michigan History Magazine |
| Geographic Code: | 1U3MI |
| Date: | Nov 1, 2016 |
| Words: | 2898 |
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