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Photographers
This addendum therefore runs the leg the way the audit table frames it — the floor instance first, at boundary size, then the test against Clay and Harris township ground. The floor instance the table's names belong to is Fort Wayne, documented person by person in John D. Beatty's Directory of Fort Wayne Photographers 1843–1930 (Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center). South Bend, thirty minutes west, is the nearer boundary and is printed at its own size. What the two townships themselves held, tested source by source below, was for most of the camera's history nothing the record names — and the searches that establish that are shown, not asserted.
First cameras and the daguerreian decade: itinerants, then the floor's first generation
1843–1866, floor instance and township test
The pattern the audit table describes — itinerants on the main street before any studio — is Fort Wayne's documented opening. Mr. Keith (possibly David Keith of Poughkeepsie, New York), advertising in 1843, is per Griswold the…
The studio as a building: Shoaff, and Barrows' "finest gallery" claim tested
1864–1901, floor instance
John A. Shoaff (b. 1836, Juniata, Perry County, Pennsylvania; d. Fort Wayne, 30 October 1921) appears first in the 1864–65 directory with Shoaff's Art Gallery at the northwest corner of Calhoun and Main. By 1866–67 he had moved…
The photographer as inventor: Dille & Poston and the solar camera; the residence sweep
1866–1881, floor instance; patent search 2026
Joseph H. Dille (b. near Cleveland, Ohio, 1832, of Alsace-Lorraine parentage; d. Amelia, Ohio, 1918) worked in Fort Wayne 1866–1869, first with Augustus C. Crane at 136 Columbia, then alone at 44 Calhoun, opposite the courthouse…
Long studios in succession: the floor's chain, the nearer dynasty, and the townships' empty column
1853–1934 floor; 1861–2026 boundary
Fort Wayne's long succession, directory by directory, runs as follows. Carl Sommer (Charles Sommers; b. Baden or Württemberg, 1830; in Allen County by 26 December 1849) advertised daguerreotypes at one dollar to close out stock…
From the studio chair to the Kodak counter
1891–2026, floor instance, boundary, and township test
The floor's transition has a name and a date. Maurice LaMott Jones (b. North Manchester, Indiana, 11 August 1848; d. Lakeworth, Florida, 24 February 1938), a Civil War veteran who reached Fort Wayne in 1876, ran a studio from…
Women of the trade, and the newcomers' studios
1858–1925 floor; boundary and township sweeps
The women are their own article, as the table orders. Almira Benham's Ladies Picture Gallery of 1858 (art-63-1) is the floor's founding entry: a woman's gallery run as a business in its own name, in rooms a male daguerreian had…
Photographers With Unfinished Records
1912–1941 floor; 1929–1933 boundary
Washington Blake opened a studio at 1008 Calhoun in Fort Wayne in 1912 and worked to 1920. He was born in Missouri about 1861, was enumerated as a photographer in Fort Wayne in both 1910 and 1920, moved away in 1939, and died at…
Press photographers: the staff tradition, the courthouse commission, and the art photographer
1894–2006, floor and boundary; Granger ground 2005–2006
The civic commission belongs to the floor. Charles Winslow Miner (b. Columbia City, 26 January 1866; d. 22 May 1912) began as a traveling photographer, worked for Schanz, and from 1894 — Miner & Dexter at 44 Calhoun, then alone…
The modern line, the school-picture firms, and where the pictures live
1972–2026
The floor's modern documentary line is an export: David and Peter Turnley, twins born 22 June 1955 in Fort Wayne, who began photographing in 1972–73 at seventeen in their home town, shared one camera at first, and spent a year on…