Although early Grinnell, like much of the rest of the country, welcomed the industries that were remaking twentieth-century America, the local economy depended upon a handful of professionals and the small shops of salesmen and artisans. Among the most important of these were the photographers who, riding the wave of photographic innovation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, introduced Grinnell residents to the expanding world of photographic representation. If today every owner of a smart phone can make a record of experience and image, in an earlier time a small cohort of photographers controlled and merchandised photography and its associated products, especially in America's small towns. Today's post examines the local history of photography in early Grinnell, concentrating upon the most successful and long-lived of those enterprises, the Child Studio and Art Rooms.
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Art Glass Window From Child Art Studio, 909 Broad Street
(Rescued when the building was razed in 1974)
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When the small settlement of Grinnell was founded in the 1850s, commercial photographers were unusual in Iowa, only recently established as a state in the union. But with the quickening expansion of photography, especially on the heels of the Civil War, numbers rose across the Iowa prairie. According to one recent study, Iowa could claim 185 photographers in 1865, 223 in 1880, and more than 580 by 1900 (Mary Bennett, An Iowa Album: A photographic history, 1860-1920 [Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1990], 312).
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Advertisement in Grinnell Herald, October 18, 1871
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Grinnell gained its first photographer when Charles L. Walker (1835-1900) came to town. Born and raised in rural New Hampshire, Walker abandoned his home turf for New York and later Connecticut where he took up photography, doing some of his work during the Civil War. After a brief spell in Wisconsin, Walker arrived in Grinnell no later than August 1870 when he appeared in that year's census, describing himself as a "Photo Artist." Very soon Walker opened on Broad Street what seems to have been the town's first photography studio and "art gallery" (GH 2/1/1871).
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1890s photo of Hatch Building, SW corner of Main and 4th Ave.
(https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A11255)
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If Walker was Grinnell's first photographer, he soon had company and commercial competition. No later that 1887 W. F. Stallings (1854-1940) had set up shop in the Hatch Building at 4th and Main. By 1895 Stallings had disappeared, relocating to Des Moines, but J. W. Kester (1868-1953) established his photography studio at Park and 3rd, opposite Chapin House. At about the same time J. M. Stonestreet (1862-1942) was running his photography business from 802 4th Avenue, announcing himself as the successor to Stallings.
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Advertisement taken from an undated (1890s?) Stonestreet Photograph
(https://www.etsy.com/listing/959110732/victorian-albumen-portrait-photograph)
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Evidently Grinnell business was not sufficient to keep Stonestreet in Grinnell, so that sometime before 1900 he transferred his business to Marshalltown (Marshalltown Evening Times-Republican, March 20, 1900). For a time W. B. Brooks took over the Stonestreet Studio but the 1905 city directory has John Kester working from this address, so Brooks must have moved on.
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1895 Photograph of J. M. Stonestreet (1862-1942)
(Bennett, An Iowa Album, p. 313)
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All these photographers played a part in memorializing the people and places of early Grinnell. But none was so influential or long-lasting as Arthur Child and his studio on Broad Street..###
Arthur Child began his apprenticeship in photography by fulfilling minor errands for Walker, but by the time he acquired his uncle's business (probably sometime in early 1880 as Child advertisements begin to appear in the Grinnell Herald then; L. F. Parker contends that Child bought the business in 1881 [History of Poweshiek County Iowa, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1911), 2:696) he had developed an expansive appreciation for the enterprise. Not long after having taken over Walker's studio, Child made plans to erect a new building to replace Walker's premises. Constructed of brick with a stone front, the new block—on which Child's name was carved near the peak—rose three stories and measured twenty-two feet wide and seventy feet deep. Complimenting Child on his plans, the Herald anticipated "the finest gallery in the county" (8/1/1884).
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Detail of 1974 William Oelke Photograph of 909 Broad, Taken Just Before the Child Building Was Razed
(https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A11242)
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From the start Child, like his uncle before him, viewed his enterprise as more than a photography studio, as the words "Art Rooms" decorating the building's second-story face implied. Initially occupying the second and third floors, Child established a richly-appointed gallery on the 2nd floor. The room facing the street was "finished in hard wood—cherry, red oak, and ash, with an open fireplace, cherry mantel, and a mantel top mirror." Changing rooms stood adjacent, just west, separated by colored and ground glass. Behind them lay a skylight room, sixteen by thirty-two, "nicely fitted up"; it was here that Child did most of his studio photography (GH 11/11/1884). Later newspaper reports indicated that Child periodically acquired thematic scenes against which to position the subjects of his camera.
Darkrooms featured "a complete system of water works, and everything is conveniently arranged," the newspaper hummed. Child devoted the third floor—later to be converted to apartments—to printing (ibid.). Reports describe the gallery as "cheery," not least because Child kept the fire burning constantly in the fireplace. A selection of Child's photographs decorated the walls, showing off "the skill of the artist" (GH 12/19/1884). As soon as Grinnell embarked upon a system of city water and sewer, Child added "an elaborate marble lavatory in the ladies' dressing room," giving the business a "decidedly metropolitan" flavor (GH 10/23/94). Probably the most noticed addition to the building came from the photographer's father who in December 1898 anticipated Christmas by giving his son a "beveled plate-glass front door for his new art rooms with his trade mark autograph ground on the glass" (GH 12/13/98; see illustration at head of this post).
The impressively outfitted studio attracted attention well beyond Broad Street, Grinnell. An 1899 issue of Wilson's Photography Magazine, for instance, offered detailed congratulations to the Grinnell photographer.
The exhibition room is 22 x 35 feet, and has a large plate-glass window for outside display. The walls are hung with Egyptian burlap, surmounted by a deep cornice in Flemish oak, giving the room a sombre but rich appearance. The reception room, 25 x 16 feet, is separated from the foregoing by continuing the cornice across the ceiling, supported by four Ionic columns, pedestals at each side of the entrance displaying statues of the Winged Victory and Venus di Milo. The reception room walls are furnished with trophies of ancient armor...,The dressing rooms are draped with red and white stuffs...The operating room is 22 x 35 feet, giving a good range for all classes of work. The skylight is a single slant light of unusual size, glazed with ground glass. The walls are hung with striped olive and cream draperies, and the woodwork is of mahogany. The dark rooms, printing and finishing departments are conveniently arranged with full equipments for good work. The place is lighted by electric light, and all the departments are united by speaking tubes and bells (v. 36[1899]:46).
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Child Art Rooms Before 1907 Fire
(Grinnell Herald, April 26, 1907)
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Reading this description of Victorian overkill today gives rise to fears of fire, and fire did indeed break out on April 25th, 1907. According to next day's newspaper, the late-night fire turned the once elegant, richly-appointed studio into a "smoke-begrimed and water soaked ruin." Although some of the oldest photographic plates stored on the third floor survived, "cameras and all the fine stock of art goods were practically ruined, the plate glass windows cracked and the entire interior blackened and damaged so as to require rebuilding" (
GH 4/26/1907). It is easy to believe, as reportage in the Marshalltown
Evening Times-Republican claimed, that the highly flammable materials on the walls—burlap, photographic backgrounds, pictures—contributed to the rapid spread of the flames (4/26/1907).
In attempts to calm fears of long-time customers, Child reported that, although there were losses among his photographic negatives, he still had some 35,000 negatives that were spared by the fire and therefore he would be able to make prints for most of his clients (GH 5/28/1907). Even while rebuilding after the fire, Child worked ever more energetically at succeeding in business. As before, he enthusiastically urged sales of Kodak and Brownie cameras (GH 3/31/1916), extending to amateurs the possibility of producing their own photographs. To draw the public into his studio, Child occasionally invited guest artists for special exhibitions, as when he had John Newton Parks (1848-1925) exhibit portraits of a half-dozen Grinnell worthies (including J. B. Grinnell, Grinnell College presidents Magoun, Bradley, and Main, and Rev. T. O. Douglass) (GH 2/1/1918). Another window exhibit featured photographs of "Grinnell soldiers in many styles and sizes," a display that the newspaper judged "worth going some distance to see" (GH 10/4/1918). In a 1921 report Child told of having discovered among his archive of negatives a photograph of some thirty-two Grinnell pioneers which he displayed in the windows of the first floor where he now headquartered his business (GH 8/12/1921). A couple of years later the Grinnell Herald told of Child's recovery of negatives depicting the consequences of the 1882 cyclone (9/7/1923). In short, the Child Studio had become the photographic archive of early Grinnell.
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Advertisement in Grinnell Herald, December 21, 1897
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Despite the lettering upon the face of his building and the array of art supplies, picture frames, cameras and other goods (including, bizarrely, "golf goods" [GH 4/16/1915]), in the years before 1900 advertisements for the business routinely described it as "The Child Studio." At about the same time, Child began advertising in the college newspaper (S&B 10/16/1897). More than that, he seems to have cornered the market on all photographs placed in the college yearbook, the beginning of that collection of negatives that came to encompass almost everyone who attended the college before 1935. A notice in the April 21, 1900 issue of the Scarlet and Black asked all seniors to "call at once at the Child Studio for sittings in order that orders for albums may be filled." Brief notes in the campus newspaper in 1905 asked members of the Chrestomathian Society (2/18) and the basketball team (3/1) to convene at Child's studio for photographs. Similar notes appeared periodically later, but only in 1922 did the campus newspaper announce that "a contract has been made with the Child studios for all the pictures for the Cyclone," asking that the entire Junior class appear at the studio (in alphabetic order as organized by the Cyclone editors [10/11/1922]). Schedules arranging sittings for all campus groups also appeared in the Scarlet and Black.
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Notice in Scarlet and Black, December 9, 1922
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No later than 1890 Child also managed to acquire at least some of the photographic business at Grinnell High School. A notice from June 3rd of that year told newspaper readers that Child had taken the picture of the high school graduates (GH 6/3/1890). Over and above all this, of course, Child Studio hosted photography sittings for the distinguished men and women of town.
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1880s (?) Photograph of Early Grinnell Settlers
Front row: Ed Wright; Caerlis Fisher, R. M. Kellogg, Levi Grinnell; Back row: Henderson Herrick, W. M. Sargent, and Ezra Grinnell
(https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A12830)
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Despite all this success, Child's operation of studio and art rooms did not proceed without interruption. As newspaper reports indicate, Child's health occasionally compromised the attention he could devote to the business. Soon after having purchased his uncle's enterprise, Child fell so ill that he felt obliged to spend time in Colorado, from which he returned in September 1883, "much improved in health" (Signal 9/22/1883). About eighteen months later another newspaper article announced that Child "was able to come out Saturday for the first time in several weeks." Without identifying the illness, the report told readers that the "swelling just beneath his jaw has not yet entirely disappeared, but we are glad to note his improved condition" (GH 3/17/1885). The following winter brought more health concerns; this time the newspaper identified the illness as erysipelas, a skin infection that often affects the lower extremities and face. According to the newspaper, Child had "a serious time of it with this disease" (GH 2/16/1886). Apparently things got so bad that Child withdrew from the business for a year or more, calling his uncle back to duty before resuming work himself (GH 1/24/1890).
The health crises may explain why in spring 1891 Child announced that he had "associated himself" with Mr. E. S. Gardner, who took over most of the photographic work (with the assistance of John Kester) while Child would have "more time to devote to copying, pastel work and crayon drawing for which he is justly famous" (GH 4/17/1891). I could find no record of how long this arrangement lasted, but apparently Child soon reassumed full control.
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Undated Photograph of Ella Worsham Child (1859-1928)
(https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A13080)
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As his business prospered, Child also succeeded in his private life. In 1885 he married Ella Worsham (1859-1928) who, having studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, was then working in Child's studio as a retoucher. To this union were born two children: Maude (1887-1974) and Arthur L., Jr. (1899-1979). For this growing family in 1890 Child built a lovely new home. Described as a Victorian cottage, the Child home at 1226 Broad Street earned much local praise, but also gained unsolicited compliments from a visitor who wrote for the Chicago Herald. During a brief Grinnell sojourn in 1891 Samuel T. Clover (1859-1934), who later gained fame as a graphic artist, described the Child Broad Street home as "the most beautiful cottage in Grinnell" (GH 7/10/1891), praise that resonated with the photographer's local reputation. |
Undated photo of 1226 Broad Street, Grinnell
(https://grinnell.lib.ia.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/HistoricDistrictDigitalPhotos2013.pdf)
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As Child approached his eightieth birthday, he decided to give up the business that he had kept alive in Grinnell for almost sixty years. In late spring 1935, local newspapers reported that Child had sold the photography business to O. E. Niffenegger (1905-1992), who for some years had taught business courses at Grinnell High School (1934 Grinnellian, p. 7).
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O. E. Niffeneger
(1934 Grinnellian, p. 7)
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Child maintained ownership of the building, but Niffenegger took over the studio, retaining the name and taking possession of the entire stock of photographic negatives, said to number over 100,000 (GH May 28, 1935). Newspaper commentary alleged that Child had "taken pictures of virtually every resident of Grinnell" and "practically every student who graduated from Grinnell College." Since all these negatives would remain at the studio, anyone who wished to have a print of a portrait taken by Arthur Child could do so at the business on Broad Street, despite Child's retirement (ibid.; Drake Community Library Local History Archive [Collection #145] preserves more than 300 of Child's glass negatives ).
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Grinnell Herald, May 28, 1935
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Unfortunately, Niffenegger was not able to make a smooth transition from schoolyard to photography studio. Ten weeks after he gained possession of Child's business Niffenegger became the object of a restraining order filed by his wife, Virginia, a Grinnell school teacher who charged her husband with cruelty and threats (Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 14, 1935). The following January, the couple divorced, Niffenegger having chosen not to contest the action (Iowa Divorce Records 1906-1937). Six months later Niffenegger remarried, taking as his bride Helen West (1908-1997), a school teacher in Perry, Iowa (Cedar Rapids Gazette, June 7, 1936). |
Scarlet and Black, May 8, 1937
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The twelve months that followed purchase of the Child business, filled as they were with marital conflict, cannot have helped Niffenegger gain control of his new enterprise, which may explain why in May 1937 he sold the business he had acquired less than two years earlier. As newspapers reported, Roger Lee Preston (1898-1961), a 1918 graduate of Grinnell High School and a 1922 graduate of Grinnell College, acquired title to Child Art Rooms. Unlike Niffenegger, Preston almost immediately changed the name of the business to "Roger Preston Studio (Formerly Child Art Rooms)" (Scarlet and Black, November 3, 1937), although he seems to have conducted the studio very much like his esteemed predecessor. An older brother, James Randall Preston, who himself had briefly operated a photo studio in Grinnell in the early 1920s but by 1937 was headquartered in Hollywood, assisted in organizing the new enterprise (Grinnell Herald-Register, May 6, 1937). By the time that 1950 census officials came to Grinnell, however, Preston had abandoned the studio, having taken a position instead in the "plastics dept" of a washing machine company. Roger Preston died in Grinnell in 1961 at age 62, and is buried in Hazelwood Cemetery. |
Undated Photograph of Roger Lee Preston (1898-1961)
(https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69429807/roger-lee-preston)
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Before departing Grinnell for California in late 1935, Arthur Child was the center of an appreciative reception hosted by the new owner of Child Studio and Art Rooms.
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Newspaper photograph of A. L. Child
(GH 10/15/1935)
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Using the premises where for so many years Child had practiced his art and operated his business, Ora Niffenegger invited friends to share memories and to bestow upon the 80-year-old gentleman their best wishes. One of his business neighbors,
George H. Hamlin (1855-1945), offered the valedictory, lauding Child's history in Grinnell and describing his long-time friend as "An artist by profession...[and] a gentleman by nature." Hamlin then unveiled for the audience an enlargement of a favorite photograph of the photographer, intended to "hang in the Child Art Rooms" long after the subject left Grinnell (
GH 10/8/1935).
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Gravestone for Arthur Child Family, Hazelwood Cemetery
(https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27574281/arthur-leon-child)
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Arthur Child did not long outlive this celebratory moment. In his winter residence in California Arthur Leon Child died in early January 1938. The Grinnell newspaper mourned the departure of "one of Grinnell's old guard" who "for a great many years...interpreted the life of Grinnell through the lens of his camera" (Grinnell Herald-Register 1/13/38). A memorial service in North Hollywood brought together "children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, cousins and many old Grinnell friends." As the newspaper remarked, "It was extraordinary that such a reunion was possible in California of a family whose roots had been so deeply sunk in Grinnell" (Grinnell Herald-Register 3/14/1938). Child's body was returned to Grinnell in March for burial in Hazelwood where a remarkable, multi-colored stone now marks the grave of Grinnell's longest-serving photographer whose photographs—beginning with glass plates and then in every new stage of photography—documented the people and places of early Grinnell.
