Farms, barns photography exhibition set at arts center

Photos from early 1900s also featured

A farms and barns photography open juried photography exhibition is underway at the Shawnee Hills Arts Council’s Anna Arts Center.

For those who want to see the exhibition, the arts center is scheduled to be open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. The arts center is located at 125 W. Davie St. in Anna.

A closing reception for the exhibition is planned from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on June 28. The reception will be free. Refreshments will be served.  

Part of the exhibit includes a display titled “Finding Family History in Glass Negatives: Farm and Family scenes from glass negatives circa 1910.” 

Dr. Susan A. Whitemountain, local genealogist and family historian, bought 16 glass negatives from Isom’s Antiques and brought them back to The Gathering Place, a genealogy business she operates on South Main Street in Anna. 

She learned how to process the glass negatives to create prints at her shop. 

At first it appeared that the varied images on the glass negatives were not connected.  

One was labeled “Banning Home Atwater Ill.,” another “Cummings House Blytheville, Ark.”; and still another “Talo Cave Mt Grove Mo.”  

Many of the images were with people, including a group standing in front of a house labeled “Horace Etter & Friends.”

A farm scene with a yard filled with sheep was labeled “Barns Sheep.” 

A store with two men was labeled “Etter Store.” A group of people standing in a yard was labeled “Barns & England Group.”  

A couple of the negatives were of classroom students labeled  “Lake Fork and Hettick schools” and one was of a group sitting on a farm wagon that was labeled “Baptist Sunday School.”  

After considerable research. Whitemountain was able to connect the images on the glass negatives to the Etter family in Macoupin County, Illinois, and eventually to a surprised descendant in Aurora, Colo. The history of the family is part of the exhibit.

The Gazette-Democrat

112 Lafayette St.
Anna, Illinois 62906
Office Number: (618) 833-2158
Email: news@annanews.com

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