VIEWFINDER

Vintage Views Time Travel to Bygone Days

"There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of space, and a fourth, time."

TIME TRAVEL isn't nearly as complicated as H.G. Wells portrays it in his 1895 science fiction classic, The Time Machine. But he clearly knew the power of the three dimensions to transport us to a Fourth Dimension.

Vintage photographs chronicle the life and times of a bygone era, making it easy to travel back in time. Reliving historic moments or coming face to face with history's notorious characters requires only our imaginations. Conservators like Jeremy Rowe help facilitate the trip.

Our story, “History’s Snapshot,” (page 38) taps Rowe’s vast collection of at least 35,000 historical photographs. He lost count of the exact number long ago, but he knows well the intrinsic nature of each photograph.

“I look for images that tell stories about people and the times in which they were made,” Rowe says. “I’m also interested in finding related photographs that can create a series of images of a location over time, or images of events from multiple perspectives. The interrelationship between the images is often more than the sum of the individual parts.” Rowe’s interest in old photographs started with a single daguerreotype portrait he found years ago at a local swap meet. That discovery sparked a curiosity about early photographic processes and awakened his passion for vintage prints. Soon his small collection of daguerreotypes dating to 1840 expanded to include ambrotypes, cartes-de-visites, cabinet cards, stereographs and photographic postcards.

Once in a while Rowe acquires a rare photograph that fills a gap in the historical record. “One important historic image is of C.S. Fly’s studio in Tombstone burning down,” he says. “The image was taken by Molly Fly apparently just after the building was engulfed in flames. Likely it is the only copy and the only remaining image of the event itself.” Rowe grew up in Phoenix, so his collecting interests naturally have an Arizona bent, especially those made by frontier photographers. The impressive collection he amassed inspired his first book, Photographers in Arizona, 1850-1920: A History & Directory. “The images of Arizona’s past led me to questions about the photographers who made the images—who were they? How did they live?” Rowe writes in his book. “And most pertinent to me as a collector—what became of the rest of their work?” His soon-to-be-released second book compiles a history of Arizona photographic postcards from 1900-1920. On his Web site, www.vintagephoto.com, you'll find a gallery of vintage images dating to the Civil War and a compendium of reference materials on historical photography. Finding time for his avocation can't be easy. Rowe has a full-time career in the School of Computing and Informatics at Arizona State University in Tempe. But when his photography research connects with his job, the technology at his disposal virtually transports him to vintage collections in distant parts of the country. Online-accessible collections make it easier to research even the largest repositories.

Rowe worked on the “American Memory” project for the Library of Congress, scanning and digitizing old photographs from its collections, and making a historically important archive accessible to 21st century researchers. But the charm and magic of vintage prints is lost in the digital versions. To really appreciate the old photographs, Rowe strongly encourages attending exhibitions of authentic prints, not just viewing the digital prints on display in many museums and galleries. He's curated a number of historical photography shows featuring vintage materials for Prescott's Sharlot Hall Museum, Mesa Southwest Museum and the Phoenix Art Museum.

In addition to contributing to the knowledge of Arizona's past, Rowe's collection confers some fringe benefits. “Having the vintage material around has a certain therapeutic value,” he says, “allowing me to escape occasionally into a quieter, somewhat saner time and place.” The time machine H.G. Wells imagined is still science fiction. But with Jeremy Rowe's 35,000 vintage time machines, the traveling is free and easy. All