Museum director shares favorite photographs
Published 9:59 am Monday, January 9, 2017
This image is one of the oldest known photographs of Dowagiac and was acquired by the museum through Floyd Jerdon. Several years ago, I found a listing on eBay for two 1860 tintypes of Dowagiac and Floyd bought them for the museum. The image here is the only known photograph of the original Dowagiac, Michigan Central Railroad depot. In the background is the Judd sawmill, which Mark Judd built in 1859. While the mill is long gone, Judd Lumber Company keeps going strong and is a key business in the city. (Photo courtesy of the Dowagiac Area History Museum)
This photo was titled “The Drs. Vs. the Leans” and shows two baseball teams at the Dowagiac baseball grounds with the grandstands in the background in the 1890s. The ballgame was between doctors and young upstarts (the Leans). My favorite part of the image is that the gentlemen labeled numbers 7 and 8 (identified as Dr. Rix and Dr. Roof) are the umpires and clearly are wearing sidearms. It just shows that referees and umpires have never gotten all the calls correct! (Photo courtesy of the Dowagiac Area History Museum)
This image shows Front Street in 1874, taken from the depot this time. Fires in the 1860s had destroyed most of the wooden structures that lined Front Street after the railroad’s arrival in 1848 and they were replaced with brick buildings that still stand today (for the most part). In the foreground is Michigan Central Railroad Park on the east side of Front Street. That side of Front Street did not develop until the 1880s — with no development south of Commercial Street until the 1920s. (Photo courtesy of the Dowagiac Area History Museum)
Less is known about the this photograph, but it is a fun one and tells me a lot about entertainment around the turn of the century. The photo shows a high diver in mid-air, diving into a pool of water no deeper than seven feet from about 40 feet. The high diver is set up at the corner of Front and Main Streets, about where City Hall is today. This amazing photo truly captures a moment in time. (Photo courtesy of the Dowagiac Area History Museum)
Photographs help document our lives, and technology has made it easier for us to take photographs today than at any other point in history.
For the first 150 or more years of photographic history, everyone did not have a camera and not every event — mundane or significant — was chronicled in photographs.
Whether the new technology is all for the good is debatable. For example, many people hold their phones up to take videos or photos instead of living in the moment and enjoying a concert, ballgame or special moment with their children.
Additionally, the digital format has made it so easy to take photos that too many exist, which makes it difficult to assess what is worth keeping. Throw in the fact that as a museum director and curator I am tasked with figuring out what to keep for the future, and I shudder to think about how museums and archives will adequately document the digital age through photos with millions of digital images from which to choose.
The museum has a quality collection of photographs that helps document Dowagiac’s history and events. We can track the growth of the Round Oak factory, view downtown through a photographer’s lens and revisit events throughout the city’s history.
As you may have read in recent news releases, this year’s One Story Read project has selected the book I co-authored with Ann Thompson, “Images of America: Dowagiac,” as the book for 2017. The museum, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Dowagiac District Library and Southwestern Michigan College will all host events addressing the book and the theme, “A Sense of Place.”
I kick it off with a program on Dowagiac photographs at 1 p.m. Feb. 18 at the museum. I thought I would share some of my favorite photographs from the collection for my column this month. Come to my program on Feb. 18 to learn about these images and to view more.
As part of the project, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Education Department has purchased copies of “Images of America: Dowagiac” for free distribution to the public. Stop by the participating institutions for a free copy of the book.
