Annotations From the Archives: Red Cloud's Photographers
Think about all the things you know about Willa Cather and Red Cloud. Can you call to mind her teenaged fashions, or the house where she grew up? If you can, your mental images are likely reinforced by a photograph that fills in the details and enhances your understanding. Cather's early biographers and those who read and study her today are indebted to the many friends, family members, and townspeople who shared photographs of Willa Cather and the early days of Webster County. Red Cloud's photographers—both professional and amateur—have played a tremendous role in helping to "put flesh on the bones" of the historical record. They have documented both the monumental achievements and the mundane activities in town, literally showing us Willa Cather's world.
Several professional photographers are well-known in Cather circles; they photographed many members of the Cather family, their friends, and the citizens who later populated Cather's novels and short stories. A more comprehensive index to Red Cloud's photographers continues to evolve as more discoveries are made, but Carl Weber is likely Red Cloud's first photographer. In April 1874, the Red Cloud Chief wrote, "Red Cloud wants a Photograph Gallery," and in 1875, amusement operator Weber answered the call, opening a studio to run alongside his bowling alley, shooting gallery, and ice cream parlor. He and his family left for San Francisco in 1883. In the late 1870s, several traveling photographers brought their tents to Red Cloud for short engagements, which, the newspaper reports, were frequently crowded.
Fred Bradbrook arrived in 1883, and his prolific work in Red Cloud constitutes some of our most important holdings. Though his first studio was behind Sherer's Drug Store at the corner of 4th Avenue and Webster Street, following the construction of the Moon Block in 1887, Bradbrook moved his studio to the 2nd story of the new building. In the Moon Block, "Brad" Bradbrook was able to furnish a fanciful portrait studio that today helps us to identify Bradbrook photos, with or without his stamp on the prints. This portrait of the Gayton Lewis family was recently acquired; Lewis was a Catherton neighbor of George and Frances Smith Cather. The braided detail in the upper left of the photograph, however, proved to be helpful in identifying the photographer and location of this well-known portrait of Willa Cather and Louise Pound.
Herman Nau and J.H. Wegmann both partnered with Bradbrook in the Red Cloud business for several years, as well as being independent photographers in the region. In 1896, Nau returned to Red Cloud from nearby Blue Hill to partner with Wegmann. Earl Tennant and Frank Hendricks were also working with Wegmann and Nau.
In 1888, John Adams Bulkley, a native of Illinois, arrived in Red Cloud. He too set up a studio on the east side of North Webster Street, where he photographed the Cather children, Silas Garber, and others. Bulkley, a Civil War veteran, only remained in Red Cloud through early 1890.
In 1898, the Argus writes of the on-again, off-again Bradbrook & Wegmann partnership, noting, "Their gallery is equipped with all the modern requirements for making from the smallest to the largest photographs, including family groups."
This past week, the National Willa Cather Center staff made an amazing discovery: in a small, water-damaged cardboard box, stored out of sight behind historic building materials, were 87 glass negatives. The fragile glass pieces capture historic images within their delicate gelatin emulsions, but they were jumbled together and encased in dirt, dead spiders, wasps' nests. It's unclear how or when they were placed in that out of the way corner.
The discovery may complicate what we have always thought we knew about some of Red Cloud's photographers, particularly J.H. Wegmann. Take this photo, for example, of "Hughie" Miner and Roscoe Cather, which we have always credited to J.H. Wegmann, given the cabinet card imprint.
However, the glass negative for this exact image was among the many found in the Miner House, along with a great many informal "snapshots," clearly taken inside the Miner House, in the yard, and at sporting events.
Does this mean that Wegmann's photographic output was much more varied than his downtown portraits suggest? Or might it mean that some member of the Miner family dabbled in photography and enlisted Wegmann to act as the printer? Or, still another possibility is that Wegmann's glass negatives were, at some point, sold or given away, and these made their way to a Miner family member because of their subject matter. We can only speculate at this time.
For now, the glass negatives have undergone an initial cleaning and evaluation. A very few were simply unsalvageable, with no silver remaining on the glass at all. Archivist Tracy Tucker has made some careful experiments on more intensive cleaning, but no further work will be undertaken until a preliminary scan can be done. These baseline images will serve as insurance, should further cleaning and conservation work result in damage to these extremely fragile pieces; we will also be able to begin identifying the subjects, which we know will include Julia Miner, prize-winning cattle, chickens, and pigs, Douglass and Roscoe Cather, Retta Ayre Miner and her daughter Jennie, and more.
These plates allow our organization to learn new things about the Miner house itself—its wallpaper and furnishings, for example—as well as the daily activities of the family. As we've learned over decades of historic preservation and interpretation, sometimes the smallest details in a photograph give us the clues we need to bring a story or a building to life. We're excited to see what we learn from this small treasure trove.
Wegmann ended his partnership with Bradbrook in 1901, moving to California. Bradbrook, too, was soon out of the business due to ill health, passing away in 1906. G.V. Argabright, who began working with Bradbrook in 1900, soon took over a studio in the Potter Building, and Charles Schultz also spent several years photographing Red Cloud's citizens before becoming an assessor in 1912.
Another extremely important amateur photographer, Sid Tobler, was featured in a joint exhibition with Webster County Museum several years ago. His street scenes of local businesses provide a fascinating time capsule of the mid-20th century.
Do you have a collection of Webster County photographs or negatives—whether glass or acetate? We hope that you will consider donating them to a repository. Archivist Tracy Sanford Tucker would be happy to talk with you about your collection and help determine the best way and the best place to preserve your photos for the future and share them with others who love Red Cloud. In the past, we have arranged digitization projects to allow images to be preserved and shared, even if the original owner retains the physical copies. If you're interested in learning more, please reach out to Tucker at ttucker@willacather.org.