Happenstance
Kinsey brothers photographed the PNW timber industry from approximately 1906 - 1945. They developed an unprecedented amount of photographs which document every stage of early century logging. In 2003 University Libraries Digital Collections at University of Washington completed a digitization project making 1095 of their images accessible publicly.
I've drilled through their database a few times prior to making this discovery, which happened yesterday while researching leads for E. A. Persson's employer the Wisconsin Lumber & Timber Co. (W.L. & T). Two photos below depict the same location, yet coincidentally by two different photographers. The top photo was shot by E. A. Persson, the bottom photo by a Kinsey brother. The two images could have been photographed on the same day; Persson possibly touring Kinsey and his Eastman View camera around the project site.
More University Libraries photographs show W. L. & Timber Co. workers in what appears to be the same project. And if irony couldn't be any more satisfying, the man front and center in this photograph looks a lot like Mr. Ira Baldridge, who would have been superintendent at the time. There are more personal photos from this family of negatives I'd like to expose in upcoming posts; and soon following, the arrival of E. A. Persson's son Erik Hölger.
Photo by E. A. Persson
Photograph by Kinsey Brothers (courtesy University Libraries Digital Collections)
