Brodeck & Co. Photograph Gallery - And the people who worked there

Many people have collections or access to collections of old photographs. Typically, we try to figure out who is in the photograph and when and where it was taken. But…who was behind the camera?

The subject for this discussion is the Brodeck & Co. Photograph Gallery. Henry H. Brodeck announced the opening of his business in September of 1878 and the business continued, even after his death in 1886, to about 1892 or 1893. His wife, Amelia, son, David, and brother, Albert, all ran the business at some point. Other known photographers, artists and retouchers included John R. Cawthon, Ernest H. Price, Benjamin Taliaferro, H. Schemel, W. B. Smith and Martin Wagner.

Who among this group eventually became an Episcopal priest? Who had a half-sister named “Mademoiselle Fanny,” who was an actress, danseuse and singer on the French stage in San Francisco?  Whose father died in a Civil War prisoner of war camp? Who did some early photography in Alaska? Who was five feet, four inches tall, with a high forehead, straight nose, broad chin, long face and dark complexion and wore a mustache? Who came to be involved with mining and banking interests? Whose father was a Judge and the Indian Agent for the Umatilla Indian Reservation?

Museum After Hours is a free monthly lecture series that is open to the public. The presentation will begin at 5 pm in the Museum's Entrance Building.