Homer T. Harden
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This
exhibit highlights a selection of professional photographers who, for
over 130 years, have documented our
city. Examples of the featured photographers'
work are found in the Wichita Photo Archives.
Click on the links to learn more about
the following Wichita photographers:
Fred
Baldwin | Nereus Baldwin
Howard Eastwood
Mar
Suey Fong
Alden Harden | Homer T.
Harden
William S. Rogers and Guy Rogers
Edgar B. Smith
Arthur Spalton
Frank A. Wesely
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Of Quaker descent, Nereus Baldwin was born January
8, 1840, near Dalton, Indiana. At the age of 20 he opened his first
gallery in Farmland, Indiana. In 1869, Baldwin moved to Lawrence,
Kansas, and operated a business there for several years. By 1873
he moved to Wichita, then a small town of just over 2000 people,
and opened a gallery.
Nereus Baldwin was one of the first photographers
to work in Wichita. His photographic gallery was located for many
years above 118 East Douglas. He photographed scenes of early Wichita,
its townspeople, and of notable events. He also took stereoscopic
photographs of street scenes.
In the mid-1870s Baldwin opened a portion of his
studio to the Wichita Public Library for offices and a library.
A small collection of books was kept in the reception room of the
photograph gallery, upstairs in the New York Store building. In
July 1877, the circulating library moved from Baldwin's studio to
the front basement room of the First National Bank Building.
Baldwin's oldest son was William F. (Fred) Baldwin,
another early Wichita photographer. Baldwin was in business with
his son from 1886 until the time of his death. The photographic
gallery called N. Baldwin & Son continued to be located at 118
East Douglas. In 1904, the local paper reports that Nereus Baldwin,
along with his son Fred, had taken over 150,000 pictures since opening
the gallery in 1873, with about 50,000 negatives of these images
kept.
Nereus Baldwin died on March 30, 1901,
and is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Wichita.
View images of and
by Baldwin and his son in Wichita Photo Archives.
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Nereus Baldwin
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Fred Baldwin
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William F. Baldwin was
born May 31, 1866. His father was the early Wichita photographer Nereus
Baldwin. By 1886, William F., known as Fred, joined his father's studio
located on the second floor of 118 East Douglas Avenue to form N.
Baldwin & Son. In 1902, Nereus retired and Fred opened the Fred
Baldwin Studio at the same address.
In October 1905, Fred Baldwin left for San Diego,
to take charge of a gallery in which he had purchased an interest.
Fred H. Reed, a photographic operator working for Baldwin, was left
in charge of the Wichita business.
Baldwin didn't return to his studio in Wichita until
April 1911. While he was away he studied in some of the leading
galleries in the United States, and he made several pictures that
received awards in the National Photographers' Association.
Late in 1911, Baldwin sold his photographic studio
to Fred H. Reed and went south for his health. Upon his return in
the spring of 1912, Baldwin briefly reopened the Fred Baldwin Studio,
but sold this business in October 1912 to Reed. It was consolidated
with the Reed Studio.
On January 13, 1913, Fred Baldwin died of consumption
in Silver City, New Mexico. He is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery
in Wichita.
View images of and
by Baldwin and his father in Wichita Photo Archives.
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Howard Eastwood
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Wichita photographer Howard Eastwood began his career
in photography at an early age with a Kodak Baby Brownie camera.
From 1954 until 1955 Eastwood worked as a photographer for the Wichita
Eagle. Starting his own studio out of his home, he later established
the Eastwood Studio in the Twin Lakes Shopping Center and, later,
in the Indian Hills Shopping Center. He would remain there until
his retirement in 2001. Eastwood's collection of portraits and cityscapes
span almost 50 years of Wichita's history.
View images
by Howard Eastwood and from his collection in Wichita Photo
Archives.
Photograph at left courtesy of the Wichita Eagle.
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M. S. Fong
and Wayne Wong
During the 1920s, many Chinese men immigrated to the
United States. Those who arrived in Wichita established restaurants
that employed the next generation of immigrants in the 1930s. M. S.
Fong was one such young man who supported himself in the restaurant
trade but also followed his ambition to become a photographer and
an artist.
He arrived in Wichita in the mid-1930s at about the age of 18. He
worked at the Chinese-owned Pan American Café until 1940, at
which time he purchased a share as co-owner of the Fairland Café
which had recently changed its name from the Mandarin Inn. His involvement
with the popular Fairland Café lasted until 1969.
Throughout his life, however, he continued his photography. In his
early years in Wichita he practiced his skills on his fellow Chinese
co-workers and several examples of those photographs remain. There
is evidence that he operated the Wichita Studio at 411 East Douglas
Avenue in 1940 and 1941. Later, he maintained a photographic studio
in his home from 1952-1962.
View images
of and by Fong in Wichita Photo Archives.
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Alden Wakefield Harden was born in Washington
Township, Hamilton County, Indiana, on April 20, 1838. Harden was
forced to retire from farm life while a young man because of sunstroke.
Moving to Indianapolis in 1859, he took up photography when it was
in its earliest stages. Precluded from active service in the Civil
War, he was a frequent visitor to camps near Indianapolis, making
tintypes of soldiers.
Coming to Wichita in 1885 at age 47, Mr. Harden
bought the Lee Ong Studio and conducted his business for 34 years
in the same room above 204 East Douglas. His specialty in the photography
business was taking portraits.
From 1886 through 1887 Harden was a partner with
G. A. Ostergren in the firm Harden & Ostergren. The following
year, Ostergren left Harden's studio and began work next door with
I. S. Worrall. Alden then renamed his studio Harden's Photograph
Gallery. By 1902, Homer T. Harden, Alden's son, began working as
a photographer at his father's studio, and the following year joined
his father's business to form A.W. Harden & Son. Homer stayed
with his father's studio until 1908 when he left to become a commercial
photographer and to open his own studio at 215 East Douglas.
Harden retired March 1, 1919, selling his business
to F. A. Wesely. During his long career, he had established studios
at Mulvane, Peabody, Belle Plaine, Conway Springs and Whitewater,
but later sold them.
Alden Harden died from a heart attack at age 89
on June 13, 1927. His pallbearers, all Wichita photographers, were
Frank Wesely, Fred Reed, William Larson, Charles Lawrence, L. O.
Whittier and Guy Rogers. He is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in
Wichita.
View images
by Harden in Wichita Photo Archives.
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Alden Harden
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Homer T. Harden

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Homer Thomas
Harden was born in Lebanon, Indiana, on March 17, 1882. He was the
son of Alden Wakefield Harden, an early Wichita photographer who specialized
in portrait photography. (See Homer Harden's self-portrait at the
top of this page.)
In 1902, Homer began working as a photographer in
his father's photograph studio located at 204 East Douglas. The
following year he joined his father's business to form A.W. Harden
& Son. In 1908, Homer left his father's business to start his
own commercial photograph studio at 215 East Douglas. He started
his business with one camera, two lenses and $200 in building and
loan stock. A noted commercial photographer, Harden took many photographs
of downtown Wichita which he made into postcards. In 1917, Harden
moved his studio to the third floor of the Butts Building on the
southwest corner of First and Lawrence.
In November 1928, Homer T. Harden at the age of
46 retired from the photography business. He sold his successful
studio to Walter E. Carlson and Paul R. Bulla, who continued the
business under the name of Carlson & Bulla. Carlson had been
an operator and Bulla had been a printer in Harden's studio. At
this point in his career, Harden had more than 50 lenses, most of
them imported, ranging from a focal length of two inches to 26 inches.
His studio occupied 1,500 square feet and had eight employees.
Harden was a recognized leader in business, art
and philanthropy, as well as active in many social and civic circles.
He was a thirty-third degree Mason and was the recorder for the
Midian Shrine Temple from 1930 to the time of his death.
Harden, after a long illness, suffered two heart
attacks and died on January 27, 1939, at age 56. He is buried in
Maple Grove Cemetery in Wichita.
View images
of and by Harden and from his collection in Wichita Photo Archives.
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William
S. Rogers and Guy Rogers
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William S.
Rogers
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William S. Rogers and Guy
Rogers photographed Wichita for nearly 70 years. William S. learned
the business in L. W. Ong's Wichita studio in the 1870s, and then
established a studio of his own in 1878. He took thousands of images
of Wichitans, some of whom became famous. He knew all the early day
residents of the city and took pictures of many. His landscapes vividly
depict the early days of the fledgling city. His son Guy joined him
in the photography business in 1909. Guy worked alongside his father
until 1924 when the elder Rogers retired. He then established the
Rogers Studio which continued until the late 1940s.
View images
of and by Rogers in Wichita Photo Archives. |
Paul Bulla
and Guy Rogers
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Edgar
B. Smith
After serving
in World War I as a photographer for the Army Signal
Corps, Smith eventually returned to Wichita, his hometown.
He went into business with Maurice Hodge in 1924. According
to a newspaper of the time, Smith-Hodge Photographers
announced that they had opened up a new field of commercial
photography. This new venture consisted of "making
colored photographs of traveling men's samples
The customers are able to see the exact likeness of
the article they purchase without the salesman being
burdened with a number of large cumbersome grips
All the coloring is done by hand." |
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Edgar
B. Smith may have done more than any one, single photographer
to preserve a memory of the Wichita scene during the growth
years of the 1920s to 1950s.
Smith learned his trade in the studio of Wichita
photographer Homer T. Harden, who trained him as an apprentice
during his high school years. At that same time, Smith enrolled
in the first flying class taught by Clyde Cessna and was one
of its three graduates in 1917.
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The partners worked together for a
year or two, and then Hodge left Wichita for San Diego.
At that point Smith combined his skills in photography
and aviation to launch a long career as an independent
commercial photographer. His photographs of thriving
Wichita businesses are complemented by his aerial
views of the downtown commercial area, the aviation
factories, and the milling and refining district.
This distinctive legacy earned Edgar B. Smith the
reputation as "The Dean of Aviation Photography."
View images
of and by Smith in Wichita Photo Archives.
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Arthur E. Spalton was a contemporary of Wichita
photographer Edgar B. Smith, and, like Smith, began his career in
the employment of Homer T. Harden. After working in Harden's studio
in 1911-1912, he opened his own commercial photography business
and operated it in downtown Wichita for over twenty years. In his
later years, he apparently worked for Beech Aircraft Company and
a nice collection of photographs remains from that period of employment
during the World War II era. Those pictures demonstrate the use
of various types of equipment in the Beech photo lab. Three other
Wichita photographers (Edgar J. Banks, Paul Bulla, and Guy Rogers)
are also pictured in this series. Speculation suggests that the
men did work for, or hired on at, the aircraft plant to meet the
demands of the war effort.
View images
of and by Spalton and from his collection in Wichita Photo Archives.
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Arthur Spalton
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Frank A. Wesely was born in 1877 in Czechoslovakia.
He established his first photography business at Holyrood, Kansas,
in 1898. He moved to Wichita in 1919 and purchased the business
of one of Wichita's pioneer photographers, Alden W. Harden. The
location of that studio was 204 East Douglas Avenue.
Wesely subsequently moved his studio to 1105 West
Douglas where he worked until he died in 1965. At the time of his
death the Wichita Eagle reported that he was the oldest professional
photographer in Kansas.
Note the shadows of Wesely and his tripod discreetly
positioned in the foreground of the image.
View images by Wesely
in Wichita Photo Archives.
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