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Drake Bros. Studio Photograph Collection
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Photographers June D. Drake (1880-1969) and his brother Emory Roy Drake founded Drake Brothers Studio in 1900 in Silverton, Oregon. Four years later the brothers bought out the business of W.L. Jones, a noted 19th-century Oregon pioneer photographer, and added his negatives to their inventory. The brothers operated together until 1908 when a fire destroyed their studio; very few images were salvaged. June Drake continued to photograph in a new studio until his retirement in 1960.
June Drake was a local historian interested in documenting Silverton history, though he considered his greatest achievement to be the establishment of the Silver Falls State Park. He photographed all ten of the falls from as early as 1902, and created many travel brochures, pamphlets, and postcards to raise awareness around Oregon and the Pacific Northwest of the need to protect this area from logging. Drake published many local history pieces in the Silvertonian and Silverton-Appeal newspapers.
The collection contains photograph and manuscript material by June D. Drake, which provides a visual record of Silverton, Oregon, and surrounding areas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are nearly nine hundred photographs by Drake Studios, most with the studio stamp on versos along with detailed manuscript notes, including dates, identification of individuals, and the names of buildings and streets (many of which no longer exist in Silverton). Most of the photos dated before 1900 are copies of photos taken by William L. Jones, and others. The collection may be the working photographs and documents for Drake's unpublished history of Silverton and environs.
Manuscript materials include notes and newspaper clippings on the history of Silverton, Oregon, and its founding, the history of Silver Falls State Park, and history of the Drake and Schoenfeld families. Also included are a ledger of the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society, Ltd., a bound photograph album, and a field camera (Rochester Optical Company's Improved Empire State View Camera, ca. 1905), once owned and used by the studio.
Purchased in 2012. AM 2013-10.
The field camera was the gift of Larry S. Pierce in 2013. AM 2014-60.
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
The field camera is a large, fragile object and requires special handling in the reading room.
Finding Aid and folder inventory written by Hilde Creager '2015 in 2012. Biographical and descriptive text throughout is adapted from description provided by Kol Shaver; edited by Valerie Addonizio.
In 2022, restrictions were lifted as part of a restrictions review project.
No appraisal information is available.
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Date
- 2012
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
Collection Inventory
Arranged alphabetically by topic.
This series consists of photographic prints arranged by topic in two sizes (5x7 inches and 8x10 inches) and a field camera used by the Studio.
Included in this series are photographs of the laying the cornerstone at St. Benedicts Abby in Mount Angel in 1921; the Silverton Train Depot; the Silverton Lumber company; the Molalla and Scotts Mill covered bridges; the Cascade Rapids on the Columbia River before the dams; golfers, hotel grounds, and hot springs in Wilhoit, Oregon; Silverton Hospital; Silverton Armory; Silverton School; the Willord School where Homer Davenport attended; and the J.W. Davenport home in 1910 (built by J.W. Drake). In addition, there are photos of a number of different marching bands organized in Silverton from the 1880s onwards, the recruits from Silverton who volunteered to fight in World War I, over one hundred images of steam farm tractor engines, combines, horse-drawn team wheat combines, hop fields and harvesting, pheasant farms, flax fields, and more. Towns included in the photographs of buildings and streetscapes are identified as Silverton, Salem, Woodburn, Waldo, and Niagra, often specifying the builder and original owner. Of special interest is a mounted photo in the collection taken of the aftermath of that fire, and then further photos of the temporary Drake Brothers studio constructed by Silverton townspeople within three months.
Physical Description3 boxes
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A large-format field camera once owned and used by the Drake Studio, of Silverton, Oregon: Rochester Optical Company's Improved Empire State View Camera, ca. 1905, which was probably used to make many of the photos in the collection.
Physical Description1 box
Consists of a bound volume of 28 photographs (entitled "A Merry Christmas 1903," with vignette photo of J. D. Drake on titlepage) and disbound scrapbook pages (removed and photocopied from an original pharmaceutical manuscript ledger about the drug firm and soda fountain of Captain Harry Schoenfeld).
Arranged alphabetically by genre of material.
Physical Description2 boxes
A studio album entitled "A Merry Christmas 1903," with vignette photo of J. D. Drake on titlepage.
Physical Description1 folder
Pages removed and photocopied from an original pharmaceutical manuscript ledger about the drug firm and soda fountain of Captain Harry Schoenfeld, father of Eleanor Schoenfeld, wife of June D. Drake, whose original business began in Denver, Colorado, in 1868, together with what appears to be a Civil War era photo of Captain Schoenfeld and his unit in front of a fort building. See: Union Guide to Photograph Collections in the Pacific Northwest (1978), p. 80.
Physical Description1 folder
Consists of history files on Silverton, Policy Register of Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society, Ltd., Drake Family, and Silver Falls.
Arranged chronologically.
Physical Description2 boxes
Includes TMS for "Romance of a Barefoot Boy" about Homer Davenport, by J.D. Drake
Physical Description1 folder
Includes many pages of manuscript historical notes by Drake, including the original town ordinances, charters, and biographies of many of the first Silverton residents.
Physical Description1 folder
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