100 years ago today, readers of the Macomb, Illinois Macomb Daily By-Stander newspaper would have seen this ad:
Although I hadn’t originally planned to continue the “100 years ago today” series in 2025, this ad from 100 years ago today in 1925 gives me a good way to introduce you to the Illinois photographer Laura B. Gaites.
Born in 1861, Laura B. Gaites, née Hummer, started her photography career in 1883, initially working alongside her husband, photographer Henry W. Gaites (aka William H. Gaites). She ran the Gaites studio in Macomb, Illinois for many decades; at times she worked alone, and at other times she worked alongside a variety of relatives after her husband died in 1919.
For example, Laura’s children were both photographers. Her daughter Bessie Gaites, who never married, worked in the Gaites studio for many years, while son Walter, who had worked at Kodak for a time, eventually went to work for his mother’s studio. He died in 1935.
Walter’s son Wendell continued in the family tradition of working as a photographer at the Gaites studio. When Wendell died in 1948, his widow, Florence, started working at the Gaites studio as well.
Both Bessie (Laura’s daughter) and Florence (Laura’s granddaughter-in-law) were still working with Laura at the Gaites studio in 1951 when a profile of Laura B. Gaites appeared in the newspapers. The story is first published in the local Macomb, Illinois newspaper, but it quickly gets picked up by the newswire services and is eventually published in newspapers all across the United States.
What made this story so unique was the fact that in 1951, at the age of 90, Laura B. Gaites was still actively working as a photographer with no intention of retiring. Here’s a version of the newswire story from a newspaper in a city in Washington state, more than 2000 miles away from Macomb:
The article mentions that Laura B. Gaites, at this point, had been working as a local photographer long enough to have been able to photograph the couples both at the time of their weddings and also on their 50th (or more) wedding anniversaries. Fun! She apparently did this more than once; please note that although I have tried hard to find an example of these “pairs” of wedding photos, I have not yet found any examples. Maybe someday….
In any case, to the very end of her life Laura B. Gaites considered “portraits” her specialty (indeed, it’s what she put as her occupation on the 1950 census.). So we will celebrate her “portraits” talents today with the following portrait of a cute little girl taken in the 1920s at the Gaites studio.
Enjoy.
