Photograph Collection

MICHAEL MILEY STUDIO COLLECTION

Photograph Collection

C1:177
ca. 1870–1918, negatives 1900–1918
58 8 x 10-inch glass-plate negatives,  12 carte de visites

Michael Miley (1841–1918), probably most famous for his portraits of Robert E. Lee, was a Rockbridge County native who contributed greatly to the burgeoning field of photography. After serving under General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in the Civil War, Miley moved to Staunton to study photography under J. H. Burdett, where he learned to print positive images using the albumen wet-plate process. He returned to Rockbridge County a year later and joined forces with Andrew Plecker, a traveling photographer from Lynchburg, which led to his most famous photograph: Robert E. Lee with his horse Traveller at the Rockbridge Baths. 

Miley MO35517

In 1866, Miley partnered with businessman John C. Boude to open a photography studio at the corner of Main and Nelson Streets in Lexington. He purchased Boude’s half of the business in 1870, named the studio the Stonewall Art Gallery, and found his niche as a portrait photographer. Miley also photographed classes and athletic teams at Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute. In 1895 his son Henry Miley joined the photography business and renamed the studio M. Miley & Son. Around this time, Miley began experimenting with carbon printing, a process that produced a permanent print in one color. The resulting experiment led to a patent on his color process in 1902, and in 1905 Michael and … Read the rest

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National High Altitude Photography (NHAP) and National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) Collection

Photograph Collection

C1: 175
1980–1991

883 photographic prints, approx. 19.5 x 19.5 inches

C1:175

These large-format aerial photographs cover extensive portions of Virginia, and include parts of the bordering states of North Carolina, Maryland, and West Virginia. They were produced as part of efforts coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey to provide cloud-free aerial photography coverage of the United States for use by state and federal agencies.

The National High Altitude Photography program (NHAP) photographs were taken from an altitude of 40,000 feet. Each image covers approximately 68 square miles.

The National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) photographs were taken from an altitude of 20,000 feet, and each image covers approximately 32 square miles.

Both groups were taken with color infrared film, which renders most of the vegetation in red or magenta.

Arrangement and access:

The NHAP set includes 629 photographs taken from 1980 to 1986. The NAPP set includes 254 photographs taken from 1989 to 1991. Both sets are organized by a film roll number followed by a frame number (example: 513-171 is Roll 513, Frame 171). Roll and frame numbers as well as photography dates are printed on the images. Inventories have been created for both sets, searchable by state/county and by roll/frame numbers. These inventories also include latitude and longitude data for each photograph.

Provenance:

Transferred from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, 2012.

  • C1:175
    C1:175
  • C1:175
    C1:175
  • C1:175
    C1:175
  • C1:175
    C1:175
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Kodak 1 – Virginia Photograph Collection

Photograph Collection

C1: 157
1889
51 4 x 5-inch photographic cards 

C1:157 Kodak 1 – Virginia Photograph Collection

C1:157 Kodak 1 – Virginia Photograph Collection

These photographs conform to the Kodak 1 camera’s distinctive 2.5-inch circular iris, and often capture those in the unidentified photographer’s entourage from a considerable distance, reducing them to delicate miniatures on hillsides or in sylvan glades. Tighter shots reveal happy-looking men and women in comfortably rumbled Victorian traveling clothes—apparently early enthusiasts of historic tourism. Other photos show an oxcart on the road to Petersburg, Grant’s headquarters at City Point (present-day Hopewell), Gen. William “Baldy” Smith’s headquarters during the Siege of Petersburg (referred to in the photo’s handwritten caption as “The Old Friend House”), a group luncheon on the grass of Petersburg’s famous “Crater,” St. John’s churchyard in Richmond, the State Capitol building, the bell tower and statues of Washington and Henry Clay (since removed) on the Capitol grounds. Also shown is a mothballed monitor-class gunship on the James, which, given the time and place the photo were taken, would have to be the Manhattan, Mahopac, or Tippecanoe. 

Most of the photos have handwritten captions and are dated, with most taken on October 9, 1889. 

Provenance:
Purchased, 2010

  • C1:157 Kodak 1 - Virginia Photograph Collection
    C1:157 Kodak 1 – Virginia Photograph Collection
  • C1:157 Kodak 1 - Virginia Photograph Collection
    C1:157 Kodak 1 – Virginia Photograph Collection
  • C1:157 Kodak 1 - Virginia Photograph Collection
    C1:157 Kodak 1 – Virginia Photograph Collection
  • C1:157 Kodak 1 - Virginia Photograph Collection
    C1:157 Kodak 1 – Virginia Photograph Collection
  • C1:157 Kodak 1 - Virginia Photograph Collection
    C1:157 Kodak 1 – Virginia
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Richmond VA Goodwill Lantern Slide Collection

Photograph Collection

C1: 173
1923
90 glass slides, 3 x 4 inches, housed in original wooden box 

C1:173 Richmond VA Goodwill Lantern Slide Collection

These rare slides, many of which are hand-colored, offer a glimpse into the founding of the Richmond branch of Goodwill Industries by Dr. J. T. Mastin and the Rev. Samuel Coles in 1923, before its eventual merger with Citizens’ Service Exchange. Featured are detailed interior and exterior shots of early Goodwill-related activity, including refurbishment of furniture and clothing, horse-drawn Goodwill wagons, volunteers and patrons, several scenes of prison interiors (presumably in connection with Mastin’s correctional work), and many images unrelated to Richmond, including views of England and South Africa. The Goodwill headquarters featured so prominently in these images stood at 1814 E. Grace Street, only a few yards from the Craig House in Shockoe Bottom, and has since vanished without a trace. 

The slides most likely served as a visual aid to educational or religious lectures. Lantern slides, as a technology, were popular in America as early as 1850, yielding “magic” projections of images large enough to be easily visible to large audiences. 

The accompanying collection file contains much biographical information about Mastin (1855–1943), a Methodist minister, secretary of the State Board of Charities and Corrections, a native Virginian and, according to one article, “the South’s greatest social worker.” 

Provenance:
Purchased, 2007

  • C1:173 Richmond VA Goodwill Lantern Slide Collection
    C1:173 Richmond VA Goodwill Lantern Slide Collection
  • C1:173 Richmond VA Goodwill Lantern Slide Collection
    C1:173 Richmond VA Goodwill
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Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album

Photograph Collection

C1: 133
1899–1901
1 album, 10 x 7 inches; 43 images 

C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album

C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album

This album bears a handwritten inscription by Charles T. Cobb, dated March 1935: “The photographs in this album are of my deceased father and his Wolf Pitt Copper Mines, which he once owned and operated at Virgilina, Virginia, in the early 1900s, during the time we lived in the South. He sold the mine holdings in 1907 to the owners of the Blue Wing Copper Mines Co. for a very large amount.” 

In addition to its photo-documentation of Virginia copper-mining practices of the turn of the century, this album contains rare visual information about Virgilina itself in its “boom days”—a busy little town of mining and moonshining, muddy roads and newly built hotels, houses and storefronts in a rugged landscape stripped of trees. Included are photos of the Jones Distillery, where corn whisky was manufactured (“by U.S. permit,” the handwritten caption assures us), local mining bosses William Battershill and George B. Cobb, and even the Hungarian “Count Carachristy” [sic], an expert in coal distillation. 

Provenance:
Donation, 1997

  • C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
    C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
  • C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
    C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
  • C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
    C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
  • C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
    C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
  • C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
    C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
  • C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper Mine Photograph Album
    C1:133 Wolf Pitt Copper
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