On this, the 9th anniversary of this website, I want to invite you along on the journey what can typically happen when Chris and I do the research on Early Women Photographers (EWAPs). We call it doing a “deep dive” into records we find that allow us to trace the life and career of a woman who ran a professional photography studio in the years 1850-1930. Chris and I have been doing research on EWAPs for almost 10 years, but I didn’t start sharing anything on this website until June 15, 2017. To date, we have looked into the stories of over 2000 women (we haven’t found a lot about every one of those women. of course.
But when we are able to do a “deep dive” into someone, the (mostly) online records we typically look at might include some or all of the following:
- Census Records in the U.S. both Federal and State (where available)
- City Directories, both business and residential entries
- Find-a-Grave listings (Find-a-Grave is a free website where people have posted information about graves in the U.S.)
- Newspaper Articles
- Newspaper Photos, potentially both of and by the phtoographer
- Studio ADs in both the city directories and the newspapers
- Books and articles written by the photographers themselves
- Special materials (e.g. brochures, postcard, etc.) produced at an EWAP studio
- Other miscellaneous material
A few years ago, Chris wrote up our research process in a 5-part series on his blog. The posts cover the process of doing a “deep dive” into the life and career of a California photographer named Gertrude Belle-Oudry. Links to each part of the series are below:
Here’s a quick summary of Getrude Belle-Oudry for those who don’t want to have read all 5 parts (but I encourage you to check out all the parts, as it really captures our experience when doing a “deep dive” into an EWAP, including all the surprising twists and turns the research can take. )
Gertrude Belle-Oudry, née Davis, was born in 1878 (she died in 1953). Gertrude and the photographer Edward Belle-Oudry married twice, first in 1900, and then again in 1901 after a brief period of separation and divorce right after the first wedding. Note that Emma Belle-Oudry, Edward’s mother, who was also a photographer – she worked briefly for son. But that’s really neither here nor there.
Anyway, Gertrude and Edward divorce for good in 1920, and it’s possible Gertrude ran a studio on her own right after that. Edward moves to Oakland, CA and runs a studio there after his divorce from Gertrude, but then he dies just a a few years later, in 1923. Chris’ posts talk about how Gertrude takes over Edward’s Oakland studio after he dies.
It’s all very complicated, but Chris lays it all out in his posts. If you skip ahead to Part 5, you’ll see a lovely photo of a woman in a hat taken by Gertrude – the only photo to date that we know of that was definitely taken by Gertrude herself (as opposed to ones taken by Edward along or both Gertrude and Edward when they were running the studio together).
As I said, today’s post marks 9 years of our EWAP research here on Photographs, Pistols & Parasols – here’s to many, many more!
