Once again the topic for this article comes from the Internet. This time from a former Edwardsburg resident Dean Andrus. Dean is an Edwardsburg High School graduate who lives in California. His grandfather, father and uncle were owners and publishers of the Edwardsburg Argus at the turn of the century, 1900.
Dean has given the museum copies of the pictures that his Uncle George took of Edwardsburg from 1910 to 1920.
When Dean printed the pictures from the glass plates that his Uncle had given him, he first found some old photography equipment to try to reproduce the pictures. Later he found that he could do them on his computer, but some of the pictures were too clouded and did not reproduce.
Finding some new equipment, he is now able to print all of the pictures, which total 339. Thirty-seven new photos have been added to the collection along with many that have been rescanned to improve their clarity.
Dean has been working with Deanna West who has put the pictures on a Cass County Web site, titled “Edwardsburg Andrus Collection.”
He has also printed a list of identification of the pictures but he does not know all of the people in the pictures. Mary Montgomery has been working for more than a year attempting to identify the homes and the people in the pictures.
This collection of pictures is priceless. I have attempted to convince Dean that he needs to publish them in a book. This would be a great undertaking and something to think about for the future. But what a great asset for Edwardsburg. The pictures need to be put into other forms of media. Add that to goals for this next year.
In the fall the museum may make a public presentation of these pictures.
Dean Andrus has put hours of his time into this project and thanks to him this part of history will be available for all to see. When the museum reopens in May, be sure to ask to see this collection.