Editing an earlier article on the Holmes Brothers, who were photographers in Needham in the 1880s, led me (as it inevitably does) down a wormhole to find out about other photographers who worked in Needham.
I am in the process of expanding and editing an earlier article on the Holmes Brothers, who were photographers in Needham in the 1880s. This led me (as it inevitably does) down a wormhole trying to find out about other photographers who worked in Needham. There was both more and less information than I thought – more names, but not all that much about most of them. Here is what I’ve found (so far…)
Mr. Talbot, 1842
The earliest record of a photographer in Needham comes from Catherine Smith Fuller. Mrs Fuller was a very old lady when interviewed by George Kuhn Clarke for his History of Needham (1911). She was born in 1820 and lived her whole life in Needham. She married Ezra Fuller in 1842, and lived in the old McIntosh Tavern on the corner of Great Plain and Central Avenues. By 1842, the tavern had became a general store and social hall. Mrs. Fuller recalled that in 1842 a Mr. Talbot came to Needham for a short time, and set up in the hall to take portraits and give lectures. Mr. Talbot’s daguerreotypes were the earliest photographs taken in Needham. Not much else is known about Mr. Talbot, not even his first name. He was probably an itinerant photographer, trying to make a living at what was then a brand-new technology. Daguerreotypes were not cheap, and there would not yet have been enough business in rural towns like Needham for a photographer to set up shop permanently. Interestingly, the blog Pioneer American Photographers posted a note about an ad in the South Boston Gazette & Dorchester Chronicle for April 9, 1853: “Daguerreotypes. Those of our readers who would secure perfect pictures of themselves and friends, would do well to step in the saloon, of Mr. Talbot, located in Washington Village.” Same guy, finally able to settle down? Maybe.
Hiram D. Adams, active c1870-1880
We know almost nothing about Mr Talbot, and less than nothing about Hiram D. Adams. He does not appear in the Needham Directories (the directories we have date from 1883 to 1896). The Needham History Center does not have a local stereo view by Adams; they can be identified by his backstamp, “Hiram D. Adams, Views Artist.” There are Adams stereo images from several locations in New England; it is assumed that he was a traveling photographer, based in Needham. I was also able to find listings of images by Adams in the Getty Museum and Historic New England.
Chandler Seaver, Jr., active in MA c1850s – 1890s
Chandler Seaver (1824-1902) we do know something about – he is probably the most prolific photographer associated with Needham, and the one best-known outside of Needham. In his active years as a photographer, Seaver worked with numerous other photographers, and moved or traveled to numerous locations. His primary work was in stereo views, though in his earliest years (1850s) he also made daguerreotypes and cartes de visit (“visiting card” portraits), including the famous image at Amherst College of Charles Thompson, custodian and former seaman; and of the scars on the back of the enslaved man Gordon in the Harvard Art Museums. He worked in Boston in various studios from 1854 until 1862. By 1863, he had his own studio and residence in Newton Lower Falls.
The 1870s through 1890s were by far Seaver’s most prolific years. In 1870, he moved to Rockland Street in Grantville (then West Needham, now Wellesley Hills). Based in Grantville, he took numerous (possibly more than 200) stereo views of the Baker Estate in Needham; Baker sold these views as souvenirs from a photo kiosk at the estate. Seaver also made an extensive photographic record of Horatio Hollis Hunnewell’s estate and gardens in Wellesley, and of the new Wellesley College. During the 1870s, he also traveled in the US, and there are Seaver stereo views of locations in New England, New York City, Washington DC, Florida, Georgia, and the western states in the collections of various American museums. During this same period, Seaver is also listed in the photographic directories as working with a photographer named Eli Buell in Pittsfield, MA. In 1879, Seaver continued his work from a new studio in West Newton, on Washington Street. The last few years of his life he spent in Hyannis, mostly photographing portraits and landscapes.
The Needham History Center has more than 150 stereo views of the Baker Estate, photographed by Chandler Seaver. The Wellesley Historical Society also has an extensive collection. Seaver photos are also held in more than 25 other collections in the US, including the Eastman, the Getty, the Boston Public Library, the Library of Congress, the US House of Representatives, and the National Portrait Gallery.
J.H. Hogan, 1883
Back to not knowing enough! The 1883 Needham Directory has an entry for photographer J.H. Hogan, who had an address in the Bemis Block, at the corner of West Street and Highland Avenue in Needham Heights. The Bemis Block was a large Victorian structure that dominated the Heights Square from about 1870 until the 1930s. It housed businesses and meeting rooms, and possibly some residential apartments. The Needham History Center does not have any photographs by Hogan, nor was I able to find him listed anywhere else. It is possible that he was also a traveling photographer, like Hiram Adams.
The Holmes Brothers – Charles P., Nahum H., and Oscar, 1880s
The Holmes brothers lived in Needham, in their father’s house on High Rock Street, and maintained a studio in Charlestown. They had an active business in the area, some of our best Needham scenes from the 1880s are Holmes photos. The Holmes brothers are listed as photographers in the Needham directories from 1883 to 1888. Their ad in 1885 assures Needhamites that Charlestown is only a short trolley ride away. The pitch must have been successful, because we have numerous portraits of Needham people in our collections that were taken by the Holmes brothers.
In the 1892 Needham Directory, the Holmes brothers show up not as photographers, but as carpenters and builders. It is not clear why they moved into this new work. Needham was, at the time, undergoing rapid expansion as a residential suburb, and their brother-in-law, John Ladd was a property developer. Oscar had died in 1891, but Charles and Nahum build several homes, mostly in the blocks around Great Plain Avenue and Warren Street (John Ladd’s house lots), as well as others near Walnut Street and in the Heights. Being skilled in photography, they also took pictures of their newly-completed houses, giving us a record of residential growth in Needham in the 1890s. You can find a longer article about the Holmes brothers at The More You See.
Emory (Emery) Coulter, c1890s-1910
Emory Coulter took photos in Needham, on and off, for about 20 years. Nevertheless, he is not listed in any of the photographic directories, because he did not consider himself to be primarily a photographer.
Coulter mostly operated out of a small kiosk on the corner of Great Plain Avenue and Garden Street, but he also had a mobile wagon for hitting the road. I don’t if he had them at the same time, or if one replaced the other, or even if they were the same structure with wheels added/removed. The wagon featured large windows for light, and also good curtains for darkening. The shuttered window on the side acted as a sales counter, and the racks on the sides showed off his work – mostly formal and group portraits, though he also made images of scenes in Needham. Signs on the wagon advertised his work – “Views of All Kinds a Specialty.” There are two people visible in this photo – a woman in the doorway, and a man (Coulter, I assume?) in the window. The notes for this photo say that it was taken around 1911, when Coulter was taking photos for the Needham bicentennial; however, it may be earlier.
We have about 20 photos identified as taken by Coulter in our collections, mostly (when dated) from the 1890s. These are a mix of single and group portraits, as well as scenes around Needham. It is possible/likely that at least some of the photos of the bicentennial parade were taken by Coulter.
Although Emory Coulter was a photographer, he lists himself as such in only one of the available Needham Directories. In the 1885 Directory, he is listed as a “newsdealer” and living in his mother’s house on Garden Street. In the 1888 Directory, he is listed as the manager of a “music concert company.” In the 1892 Directory, he is listed as a photographer, but in 1896 he is a “Humorist and Dramatic Manager” (and still living with his mother). He does not appear in the later business directories, though the tax rolls list him in 1900 as owning a small house on Marked Tree Road with his wife Emma. By 1910 he is no longer listed as a property owner; however, he presumably stayed in (or near) Needham, because he was buried in the Needham Cemetery in 1937, having lived to be about 72 years old.
Fred R. Ames, c1900
The Needham History Center has 15 photos by Fred R. Ames, but little other information. He shows up only once, in the Needham Directory for 1896, as a photographer living with his father on May Street. His father, Robert, is resident in May Street for some years before, so it is likely that Fred lived here as well. The Directory also advertised his studio on Chapel Street and highlights “Groups, Portraits, Interiors, and Copy Work. Children’s Portraits a Specialty.” Nevertheless, all of the photos in our collections identified to Fred Ames are landscapes and streetscapes.
One other note – a Fred R. Ames left the Boston area in 1910 and moved to Reno, NV, where he died in 1911. It is possible (maybe…) that this is the same Fred R. Ames. Or not.
George Abell, c1890-1910
George Abell (1866-1943) was born and raised in California. When he finished school, he spent two years at the Maryland Military and Naval Academy, and then went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad. Following the railroad’s economic decline in 1897, he returned to California and got a job in San Francisco in a photography studio. In 1899 he moved to Needham; he had a house on Cartwright Road and worked in the photo studios of his brother-in-law William Partridge (Newton and Wellesley). He also worked as a volunteer fireman. In 1902 he opened his own studio in Wellesley, on Church Street, working until about 1910 or 1912, when he left photography to work for the MA Forestry Department.
The Needham History Center has about 70 photos identified to George Abell. Some of these are his own, and are mostly group and family portraits and Needham streets and buildings. Others are negatives of Needham scenes that he took over from the Holmes brothers and from Fred Ames. We have an album that we assume was one of his sales albums, where many of the images are tagged “Negative by Holmes (or Ames), Print by Abell,” indicating that he purchased their negatives and customers could order prints.
Apart from his excellent photographic work, Abell was locally famous for having built himself a paper house on the Cartwright Road property. He and his wife Emma are listed as owning the property by 1899, but in 1901 the assessor’s listing annotates the entry as “House (paper).” For whatever reason, Abell acquired bundles of large sheeting paper from the Boston Globe, which he used to build the walls of his wood-framed cottage. It was apparently quite warm and cozy, and he raised his family there for many years. (That’s a story we will get to in greater length another time…)
Elizabeth Ladd, 1908-1910
Elizabeth Ladd was not a photographer by profession, but she made a notable contribution to local photography in the years between 1908 and 1910. Elizabeth was the sister of John Ladd, and the sister-in-law of Charles and Nahum Holmes, from whom she presumably learned photography. All of her known photos survive as color lithograph postcards, which she carefully labeled with her name and the year. I have been able to find 25 in all – 21 of Needham and another 4 of Westwood. Read more about her at Photograph Copyright Elizabeth A. Ladd.
** I am greatly indebted to my friend, Ron Polito, whose Directory of Massachusetts Photographers, 1843-1900 provided valuable information and resources for this article. **
Gloria Polizzotti Greis, Executive Director, Needham History Center & Museum