This souvenir letter and wall card was included in our family's Letsom Letters Collection. After a bit of tracking down, if I have this correct, William Jefferson Carpenter was an architect who also had a photography studio in Spokane, Washington from 1905 until 1908 named Carpenter & Co. After that, he moved to Vancouver, operating a studio named Carpenter Studio and living there until 1913.
NAME: Carpenter, William Jefferson.
LIFE DATES:
BIRTHPLACE:
PLACE OF DEATH:
WHERE ACTIVE: Rossland Greenwood Spokane, Wash. Vancouver.
BUSINESS ADDRESS/YEAR: 26 ½ Columbia (Rossland)/1897-1903 Greenwood/1899 Spokane, Wash./1905-1908 303 Hastings W. St. (Vancouver)/1910-1913.
HOME ADDRESS/YEAR: St. Paul N. (Rossland)/1900-1903 303 Hastings W. St./1910-1913.
WORK INTERVAL: 1896?-1913.
STATUS: Commercial.
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: Established in Rossland in 1896 or 1897 as Carpenter & Millar, the partnership dissolved about 1899 and Carpenter ran the business as Carpenter & Co. He worked out of Spokane between at least 1905 and 1908, then moved to Vancouver and remained there until 1913. His studio in Vancouver was also known as the Carpenter Studio.
COLLECTIONS: BGFBM BVIPA.
IDENTIFYING MARKS: see Carpenter & Millar and Carpenter & Co.
REFERENCES: HEN97 WIL97 HEN98 WIL99 HEN99 HEN00 HEN01 HEN02 HEN03 HEV10 HEN11 HEN12 HEN13 Boundary Museum (Grand Forks, BC).
Source: Camera Workers, British Columbia
Links:
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15 comments:
I just love those old postcards--such great reminders of the past. Hope all is well--are you going to do some traveling this summer? Is your grandson still headed for college this fall? Mickie :)
That is an interesting item. I have seen a lot of old postcards, but I've never seen anything like your souvenir letter and wall card.
Hard to imagine being a photographer in those days. No taking a hundred pictures hoping one will be good and deleting the rest. He really did wonderful work. Truly the "swellest".
That first photo of the falls is amazing. The noise must have been something else.
The swellest studio -- I wonder if the photographer was a young upstart using the hip lingo of the day. In the 60s, his would have been the grooviest studio. Today it would be what? Off the chain? The sickest studio? I'm not even sure what equates to "swellest" today.
The swellest studio in the Northwest - I loved that phrase as well.
Hi Kathy,
I added comments to both of your blogs and neither showed up. Wonder what happened.
Anyway, What I said was how much these photos look like paintings.
Also, how weird that he mentioned about being sure to just check out his case. A little paranoid, perhaps.
Nancy
An attractive letter card with soft subtle colours, but quite quaint advertising comments!
Oh, Wendy, I see what you mean now by being paranoid!
I'd heard of Spokane but had no idea that there were falls there. What a fine way to find out with the colourful postcards.
These are awesome. I live in Spokane and my how our falls have changed. The falls are always so beautiful especially in the spring. With the worlds fair that came in 74 we have many permanent features left over But the clock tower is still there
Wow, what great images. I am a historian living in Spokane and have never seen a couple of these images before. Do you have any other images of Spokane?
I also blog about Spokane history and the title of this object--Beauties of Spokane--reminded me of a rare book that I blogged about, same title but apparently a different guy: http://northwesthistory.blogspot.com/2011/12/internet-archive-and-beauties-of.html
Thank you so much for posting this!
Wow, wonderful pictures. I am a historian living in Spokane and have never seen two of those views before. Do you have any other Spokane images in your collections?
The title "Beauties of Spokane" was also used in a book of photographs from around this time period, but I think by a different photographer. I blogged about it here: http://northwesthistory.blogspot.com/2011/12/internet-archive-and-beauties-of.html
The "swellest" studio, a very interesting term.Looking at the photos of a city I drive through often sure do show the changes throughout the years. A beautiful city, sitting in beautiful country. I hope the photographer did well , he sure did not lack enthusiasm , or talent.
A colleague brought this item to my attention. I have been doing research on William Jefferson Carpenter, especially his large panoramic photographs done in British Columbia's Kootenay-Boundary area. Most of these were done while he was working out of Spokane, having moved there from Rossland.BC. The advert is very interesting. The language is typical of the time. I had never seen this particular advertisement before, and did not know he did colour work... How very interesting!!!
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