Seattle Now and Then

Seattle Now & Then: Main Street, Olympia, 1895

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(Click and click again to enlarge photos)

THEN: This 1895 scene from Tim Greyhavens’ book is of Ida B. Smith’s studio in Olympia at 520 Main St. (today’s Capitol Way). It reveals tools of the early photo trade, including a large view camera and tripod, real and painted curtains, angled skylight, circular sunscreen and props. In the center could be Smith, as this woman resembles other known portraits of her. The Washington Standard newspaper called her a “photographic artist” and cited her “excellent views of the interior of Olympia Theatre.” No such images have been found today. (Washington State Historical Society)
NOW: Across Capitol Way from where Ida B. Smith’s studio operated from 1895 to about 1909, Tim Greyhavens displays his new book “Artistic and Life-Like: Photography in Washington, 1850-1900” (Grey Day Press, 2024). Greyhavens presents a talk on his book Thursday evening, Nov. 21, for the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild. For more info, visit TimGreyhavens.com. (Clay Eals)

Published in The Seattle Times online on Nov. 21, 2024
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on Nov. 24, 2024

Book reveals novelty of our state’s 19th century photography
By Clay Eals

How many times have you aimed your smartphone to capture a face, a meal, a repair project, a pleasing scene? Every year, humans worldwide are said to take more than a trillion photos. Many of them graze our consciousness for mere seconds. They are seemingly lifeblood but also, strangely, a shrug.

More’s the pity. If we back up a century and a half, we reach a time when the concept of a photo, let alone a physical print, was novel, even revolutionary, especially in the rugged West.

NOW: At the Oct. 30 Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair, Phil Bevis, owner of Seattle’s Arundel Books, waves from his booth, at which Tim Greyhavens’ new book was prominently displayed at lower left. (Clay Eals)

That photographic era in our state, the latter 50 years of the 19th century, captivates Tim Greyhavens, who recently published “Artistic and Life-Like: Photography in Washington, 1850-1900.” With more than 200 carefully reproduced photos, his 262-page tome documents how and why the earliest image-makers toted heavy cameras, plates and chemicals far and wide to mine for true-to-life pictures.

THEN: Tim Greyhavens as a young teenager with dog Lady in Portsmouth, Ohio. (Courtesy Tim Greyhavens)

Greyhavens, 76, from Seattle’s West Woodland neighborhood, grew up in Portsmouth, Ohio. As a grade-schooler, he often visited a local photo studio, whose owner introduced him to his darkroom. “I was hooked as soon as I saw my first print develop in a tray of chemicals,” he says. Reaching college, he wanted to “be the next Ansel Adams.”

Life steered Greyhavens to a different career, directing the Wilburforce Foundation, a Ballard-based nonprofit that dispenses grants for conservation causes. But retirement prompted him to revisit and approximate childhood dreams.

THEN: An ad for Ida B. Smith’s studio, Dec. 2, 1898, Washington Standard. (Washington Digital Newspapers)

His encyclopedic chronicle of vintage images also profiles many of the state’s 500 earliest photographers. They include Ida Bell Mitchell Smith, who in 1895 took over the Olympia studio of A.D. Rogers and likely learned the trade from him. She offered holiday portraits of “all styles and grades” with “pastel and crayon enlargements.”

Greyhavens covers signature scenes, such as the 1860 Yesler house (considered Seattle’s first photo) and the 1889 Great Seattle Fire, leavening them with substantive and obscure excursions to logging and railroad sites and the portraiture of Native Americans, including Chief Seattle and his daughter, Kikisoblu.

THEN: From Greyhavens’ book, “Chen Chong and His Wife in Seattle,” 1866, photographer known only as “Simonds.” (Washington State Historical Society)

Throughout, Greyhavens supplies researched context while cautioning readers not to make faulty assumptions, such as trusting the words scrawled on the backsides of prints. An overarching theme is the profound importance that Washingtonians placed on such a personalized art form.

The “real meanings” of early photos emerge only “by understanding the culture and society in which they were created,” he writes.

“People soon recognized that having life-like and easily accessible depictions of loved ones was more important to their happiness than almost anything words might contribute.”

In today’s flood of taken-for-granted photos, dare we summon such deep appreciation?

THEN: From Greyhavens’ book, “James Offutt of Olympia with a bundle of hops,” 1860-1870, photographer unknown. (Courtesy Tim Greyhavens)
THEN: This 1891 print from Greyhavens’ book, photographer unknown, shows a man, three boys and two dogs posing on a temporary rail line against a backdrop of burned stumps, smoke and buildings. Writing on the print’s back identifies the scene as “Kelly (sic) town,” a short-lived 1880s development started by Norman R. Kelley near what is now Sedro-Woolley. (Sedro-Woolley Museum)

WEB EXTRAS

Big thanks to Dan Kerlee and especially Tim Greyhavens for their invaluable help with this installment!

To see Clay Eals‘ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos, and to hear this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.

Below, you also will find 8 additional photos, 1 document and 1 historical clip from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library), Newspapers.com and Washington Digital Newspapers, that were helpful in the preparation of this column.

A biographical outline of photographer Ida Bell Mitchell Smith. (Courtesy Tim Greyhavens)
From the first sentence of this Jan. 18, 1867, ad in the Walla Walla Statesman for Shupe’s Photographic Gallery, Tim Greyhavens took the title for his book. (Courtesy Tim Greyhavens)
From Greyhavens’ book, “Log huts, winter quarters,” two-part panorama, 1860-61, photographer Royal Engineers, British North American Boundary Commission. (Bancroft Library)
From Greyhavens’ book, “Two Yakama girls,” 1892-1903, photographer Eli Emor James. (Ellensburg Public Library)
From Greyhavens’ book, “Sleighing party at 7th and Howard streets, 1888-89, photographer Maxwell brothers. (Spokane Public Library)
From Greyhavens’ book, “No 29 — In line waiting to board train,” July 1891, photographer Urban P. Hadley. (Washington State Historical Society)
From Greyhavens’ book, “Insurance adjusters at work,” 1889, photographer unknown. (Spokane Public Library)
From Greyhavens’ book, “Ignatius Calvin,” circa 1870, photographer Wilson Clark. (Jefferson County Historical Society)
From Greyhavens’ book, “Peola School Girls’ Drill Team,” 1898, photographer unknown. (Denny Ashby Library)
From Greyhavens’ book, “House destroyed by flood, Kalama,” circa 1885-1895, photographer unknown. (Kalama History House)

 

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