During the later part of the 19th century, photography was in the midst of a major transition as an art form. Since its invention, photographers had concentrated on likenesses and “fidelity to nature.” But as the 19th century wound down, they began producing images in the style of paintings, moody and atmospheric works of art.
In 1892, the Minneapolis Camera Club was formed. The club produced photography exhibits, at first simply showing their members’ works at their club rooms. Around the turn of the century, the Camera Club affiliated with the Society of Fine Arts, today’s Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The science of photography was clearly becoming a new art form.
These organizations collaborated on photography salons. They extended nation-wide invitations to artists working to redefine the photograph as art. There was always room for the Camera Club members to exhibit in these salons. And the club had more frequent local photograph showings, too.
One devoted club member was a man named Arus S. Williams. He served as club treasurer for a few years, and often had series of photographs in the various exhibits. Williams had arrived in Minneapolis in the 1870s. He knocked around at a series of clerk jobs for book and stationery stores for years. He became a commercial photographer in 1898. By 1900, he was employed at The Minneapolis Journal newspaper as a photographer. His were not the more painterly photographs then coming into vogue. Perhaps his job in journalism was an influence here.
Also during this transitional time at the turn of the last century, and as the Park Board took control of Minnehaha Falls, the photographic record of the Falls begins to peter out. In part, that’s because amateur photography had become possible. Photography had become easier, portable, and less expensive. The job of professional souvenir-taking photographer at Minnehaha Falls did not last long into 1890s.
Given how thin the record becomes, it is always a pleasure to identify some new detail about an image in the urbancreek.com archives, especially a rare one. While researching the “hermits” in Minnehaha Park, this image came to light:
It turns out that a very, very similar picture was shown by Arus S. Williams in a Camera Club exhibit in May 1902. The newspaper that employed him had a large and splashy article about his “Home Sweet Home” series in the exhibit.
Williams’ “Home Sweet Home” series also included a picture of a sod house.
It is unknown why Arus Williams called this “A Sod House of the Western Prairie.” Many of the viewers at the Camera Club exhibit or readers of The Journal would have known that this picture was not taken on the western prairies, but right in Minnehaha Park. The Hermit William Herrick is standing in his doorway.