June 16, 1888 A. D. Chadwick Glass Plate Photographs

The October 1980 issue of the Interlaken Historical Society newsletter featured an article about the Glass Plate negative collection.

“Some forty-five year ago, Willard Fulkerson told John Kellogg that he had found several cardboard boxes full of glass plate negatives in the woodshed of the place where he was living. John looked at them and recognized that they were negatives that had belonged to Arch Chadwick and George Graham, professional photographers. The pictures date from 1880s to 1915.”

After storing them at the old Case Block Post Office for many years, they were moved to the Hinman Library building when the Post Office moved to its current location.

One of the glass plate negatives which is in good condition.
Once scanned and touched up this negative will be a positive print.
Interlaken Historical Society Collections.

In 1980, several people were involved in a project which “listed the glass plate negatives, numbered them, cleaned them, and made out 3” x 5” cards for each photograph, listing them by category. There were about 2,500 negatives, but water had leaked on part of the collection and they stuck together. However, about 1,100 negatives were accessioned.”

The collection, each glass plate in an acid free envelope and numbered, were stored in a specialty built case in the Historical Society store room on the second floor of the Library building.

At times in the past a few of them had been printed and were also included in the photograph collection. Doug Vanbenschoten took a number of the plates to Ithaca and had regular negatives and prints made so they could be displayed.

With the move in 2008, from the library building to the telephone company building, glass doors were made for the storage cabinet.

The original glass plate negative cabinet, now with doors to further protect the collection. 

Recognizing how fragile the collection had become, a grant was secured to purchase computer, scanner and software as well as training in the restoration of the scanned photos.

Since 2010 the collection has been scanned at 1200 dpi and volunteers continue to touch up the photos, often working on a theme to be shown in the museum. These themes have included local views, ladies, and this year the Museum hopes to showcase transportation views.

Notebook listing all of the glass plate negatives
Interlaken Historical Society collection.

As noted in the 1980 article, “The majority were portraits of individuals and families, but there were many village and lake scenes as well. There were good negatives of the Busy Bee and several other steamboats.” Street scenes, homes and churches are also included.

With the first group of prints ready to be displayed for the 2010 season, Ann Buddle wrote an article about Arch Chadwick, his photography and his career as a scene painter and teacher at Ithaca College.

The article began with a quote from the Farmer Review of June 16, 1888. “A. D. Chadwick is becoming quite an expert at photography and has on exhibition at the post office a fine collection of views taken in the village or nearby, which receives the commendation of all. He has recently taken a series of views covering the entire village. These pictures should be in the homes of every former resident. They are already selling well here.”

If you are looking for an ancestor, or a building, please contact the Interlaken Historical Society so we can check both the regular photo collection (which numbers over 2,300 items) as well as the glass plate negative collection.

Dewitt’s Diary June 16, 1945—1948

Saturday, June 16, 1945 Heavy showers. Pete and a couple of fellows from Buffalo went trout fishing tonight. Lem caught a 7 ½ pound trout.

Sunday, June 16, 1946 Strong south wind and rather cool today.

Monday June 16, 1947 Cool and cloudy and ground too wet for working this morning. Temperature 51 and not warming up much today.

Caught a lake trout night fishing.

Wednesday, June 16, 1948 Temperature 48 this morning. Too cold for beans and corn. 

We planted an acre of potatoes today on east side of field east of woods. 

Clear and cold again tonight. First sweet peas out partway today. I have them north of house.