Logan County Arts offers a glimpse of early 20th Century history through photography

“There was a time
when taking a photograph
wasn’t just a thought.
It was a well planned event.”
- Patrick Moore -
 

[September 20, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

Patrick Moore is a historian. He may not see himself as such, but the gathering of his work on the walls of the Lincoln Art Institute at Thursday evening’s opening event for his show certainly attests to that. Patrick has set his life’s work at preserving the photographs of Howard Clinton Tibbitts and several other photographers who worked at the turn of the 20th Century. Tibbitts’ photo subjects depict a part of America that no longer exists.

Tibbitts was a part of a cadre of photographers working for the railroads in the west and southwest during the first decades of the 20th Century. His subjects were the railroads themselves with iconic steam engines and elegant passenger accommodations.

In addition he recorded the natural beauty of the American Southwest and California, and the people who were a part of living in the relatively new states of the west in a still young country. Looking at his photos it is easy to see a country that no longer exists. This is history.

Howard Clinton Tibbitts was born in California and had a natural affinity for his home state and the southwest. Yet, little more is known about him personally and no photographs of him exist. “There is one photo he took that has his shadow in it, but that is as close as we come to knowing what he looked like,” said Patrick Moore.

Tibbitts photos are a peek into early 20th Century America, but that is not the only fascinating part of their history. In a day when everyone has a fine camera on their phone and digital cameras that can take hundreds of photos and store them on tiny memory cards, the photography of the late 19th and early 20th Century was a chore. Many of us know about the digital revolution in photography, and prior to that we know about cameras that actually had film in them that could be sent off to be developed. Tibbitts work preceded this time by decades.

A field view camera from the late 19th century that used glass plate negatives much like the one Howard Tibbitts used. This one belongs to Patrick Moore, who claims that it is still in working condition. While the use of dry glass plates is history in most of the world, Pat has seen contemporary photographers in England using it. “It was fascinating to see the difficult process needed to take a photo and develop it using glass plates,” he said.

The cameras that Tibbitts used were huge and could only take one photo at a time - on glass, not film, not a memory stick. The wet and dry glass plates of the era required specialized skills to take and print the photos. We are not talking point and shoot here.

Wet plates came first and had to be stored in a light proof container. When the photographer wanted to take a photo, care had to be taken to transfer the wet plate from its container into the camera, making sure that no light reached the glass plate. Once the plate was in the camera, a shroud surrounding the plate was removed and the photo could be taken. The negative was then removed from the camera and had to be fixed within fifteen minutes before the wet emulsion containing the photo dried.

Patrick and Sharon Moore with a Tibbitts photo of a forest cabin. Patrick has made it his goal to capture the work of Howard Clinton Tibbitts and preserve it for the future.

The invention of dry plates was a significant step forward as the plates could be stored for some time after being removed from the camera before returning to the dark room to print them.

Tibbitts and his cohorts carried pounds of bulky equipment to take one photo at a time. One of the photos in the show is of a photographer traveling through the mountains of the southwest with his equipment on three pack horses.

Where does Patrick Moore come into the life of an early 20th Century photographer?

“I have been fascinated with photography all of my life and especially the early cameras,” Moore said.

“The qualities of the black and white photos taken in the early 20th Century by Tibbitts are amazing because of the very slow shutter speeds,” said Moore.

Moore has become a collector of glass plate negatives. Well, maybe collector is an understatement. “I have become obsessed with the glass plate negatives and the history they have recorded, the history of our country and the history of photography itself,” he said.

Moore has set about making prints of these negatives and sharing them with the public. He scans the negatives, spends hours on the computer removing tiny imperfections in them while being careful not to alter the intent of the photographer, and then printing them on watercolor paper.

A classic Tibbitts photo of a steam engine.

When asked what his favorite scenes are from early 20th Century photos, he is quick to answer the ones with trains in them. Patrick Moore’s day job is as a railroad engineer.

Logan County Arts member Mitch Douglas is responsible for bringing Patrick Moore’s history exhibit to Lincoln. Mitch and Patrick are old friends from their days working together on the railroad, and both share a love of photography. Douglas often displays his photography at the Lincoln Art Institute.

For those who were unable to make the opening of this fascinating show, the Lincoln Art Institute will be open weekends from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Contact Moses Pinkerton for additional gallery hours at 217-651-8355.

[Curtis Fox]