Call Number:

GRA 0139

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

1 linear foot (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

GRA 0139, Willard Stewart photographs of Delaware, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

circa 1936-1938 (inclusive)

Creator:

Stewart, Willard S., 1915-2003

Form:

Black-and-white photographs

Abstract:

Willard Stewart, one of Wilmington, Delaware's, most prominent professional portrait photographers, became the primary photographer for the Delaware Federal Writers' Project and photographed numerous Delaware buildings and landscapes. These photographs document his contributions to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS).

Willard S. Stewart was born February 21, 1915, in Wilmington, Delaware. During the 1930s, he became the primary photographer for the Delaware Federal Writers' Project and photographed numerous Delaware buildings and landscapes.

Many of these images were published in

New Castle on the Delaware (1936) and Delaware: A Guide to the First State (1938), both of which were published by the Delaware Federal Writers' Project. Willard Stewart was also a project photographer for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). HABS was established in 1933 by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. Like the Federal Writers Project, HABS was created to give work to unemployed draftsmen, architects, and photographers. The purpose of the photographs and drawings made by employees of the organization was preservation through documentation. Additional photographs of Delaware sites that were taken by Willard Stewart can be seen at "Built In America: HABS/HAER 1933 - Present," part of the Library of Congress's American Memory Web site. Stewart also served as the photographer for other WPA-sponsored projects, including the Index of American Design. Willard Stewart's photographs were also published in a book by M. Thomas Clemons, Wilmington: Wide Is the City (Wilmington, Del.: Hambleton, 1947).

For the better part of his career, Willard Stewart was one of Wilmington's most prominent professional portrait photographers. He maintained studios at Brecks Mill and 1300 Riverview Avenue in Wilmington until his retirement in the 1980s. In 1955, Willard Stewart was awarded the degree of Master of Photography by the Professional Photographers Association of America. The degree is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a professional photographer by the Association, and was awarded to Willard Stewart on the basis of excellence in technique and craftsmanship. He was also the recipient of the James B. Schriever Memorial Plaque from the Professional Photographers' Association of Pennsylvania. Willard Stewart was also an influential teacher of photography. He taught classes at the Winona School of Photography, in Winona, Indiana. He also lectured extensively at photographic seminars throughout New England and Canada. Willard Stewart died on July 12, 2003.

Willard S. Stewart Obituary. The News Journal. Wilmington, July 16, 2003. B5Built In America: Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record: 1933 - Present. Library of Congress: American Memory. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/html/home.html (accessed October 15, 2003).United States. National Park Service. Historic American Buildings Survey: catalog of the measured drawings and photographs of the survey in the Library of Congress, January 1, 1938 / compiled and edited by John P. O'Neill. Washington, D.C. : G.P.O., 1938.

The University of Delaware's Willard Steward WPA and HABS Photographs Collection contains 246 photographs of landscapes and buildings in Delaware.

The collection includes images from throughout Delaware, although the greatest number are from New Castle County, with the architecture of New Castle and Wilmington being extremely well represented. In addition to historic buildings, Stewart also documented businesses, factories, farms, waterscapes, and undeveloped land. Most of the photographs are undated. The two photographs that are dated record 1936 and 1938, which suggests that rest of the photographs also date to around these years, as does the fact that some of the images appear in WPA publications that came out also in 1936 and 1938.

All of the images are black and white silver gelatin prints. The majority of the photographs are 8 x 10 prints, but some are 5 x 7 format.

The collection is arranged geographically by county (Kent, New Castle, Sussex), and subsequently by city or vicinity, with images that cannot be attributed to a particular location placed at the end of the collection. The photographs have identifying captions or descriptions written on the back, and many of them include a number such as "DEL-130" from the classification system used in the HABS catalog (see

Historic American Buildings Survey : catalog of the measured drawings and photographs of the survey in the Library of Congress … ). Images published in Delaware: A Guide to the First State … (referred to as Delaware Guide) are cited with page number, and when tours from the Delaware Guide are noted on the verso of the photographs, this information is also recorded.