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HomeHistoric Photograph Collections: The Pendleton Group
Walter S. Bowman photographs, 1890-1925.
Collection number: PH004
Extent: 4 linear ft. (20 containers)
Access restrictions: None.
Publication rights: Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish images must be submitted to the Photographs Curator of Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Provenance: The Bowman collection was donated to the Library over a period of years spanning 1947-1953. The collection was donated through the efforts of Judge James H. Sturgis and Lee D. Drake of Pendleton, a newspaperman, county clerk, and collector of historic materials (the Drake collection is PH021).
Preferred citation: [Identification of item], Walter S. Bowman collection, PH004-[item number], Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1299.
On-line access: Additional Bowman images are available in our Digital Collections.
Processed by: Normandy S. Helmer
Date Completed: June 1993/February 2004
Abstract
Walter S. Bowman (1865-1938) was a professional photographer who worked in Pendleton, Oregon, from the late 1880s to the mid 1930s. Bowman's photographs document daily life in Eastern Oregon, including special events such as the Pendleton Round-Up.
Biographical Sketch
Walter S. Bowman (1865-1938) was a professional photographer who worked in Pendleton, Oregon, from the late 1880s to the mid 1930s. Bowman's photographs document daily life in Eastern Oregon, including special events such as the Pendleton Round-Up. He was particularly noted for his portraits of tribal people, many of which were destroyed.
The Bowman collection is one of a series of photographic collections from the Pendleton area, 1880s-1920s. As a member of the Pendleton Camera Club, Bowmen knew O.C. Allen and Lee Moorhouse, and may have been responsible for Moorhouse's interest in photography. Bowman images also appear in the Moorhouse collection, the Furlong collection, and the Drake collection.
Top: Interior of Pendleton Woolen Mills, Bowman collection, PH004-0188. Above Left: Interior of Bowman's studio in 1906. Print Collection, PH036-A8058. Left: Detail from "Fancy Riding, Tillie Baldwin, the Champion Lady Buckaroo," Furlong collection, PH244-0083.
Born on Birch Creek, Oregon, Bowman began studying photography under T.C. Ward in 1887. Bowman purchased Ward's studio in 1890 and continued to work as Pendleton's premier photographer until his retirement in the mid 1930s. The Bowman Studio was housed in a building right on the banks of the Umatilla River. Images of the original studio exist but its replacement sits on the original site, and continues to house a photographic studio.
Walter S. Bowman was a member of a prominent pioneer family in Pendleton, coming west from Iowa in 1862. While his cousin, Purl Oliver Bowman, was building the Bowman Hotel, Walter "wanted to use his camera to record the West.\" Lee Moorhouse lived with the Bowman family when he first arrived in the area, and may have learned photography from Bowman.
Purl's daughter, Florence Bowman Windsor, recalled that Walter owned the first car in Pendleton, possibly a Maxwell, and was arrested for driving twelve miles an hour down Main Street. Walter S. Bowman died from injuries received in a car crash that also injured his wife.
Scope and Content Note
This collection consists of 379 glass-plate negatives, 51 cellulose acetate negatives, 28 safety negatives (replacing nitrate originals), and approximately 200 vintage silver gelatin photoprints. The collection is arranged by subject:
| Actors and Dancers |
8
|
| Buildings |
53
|
| Cities and towns |
18
|
| Farms and ranches |
20
|
| Interiors |
23
|
| Horses |
4
|
| Parades |
23
|
| Portraits |
52
|
| Railroads |
11
|
| Recreation |
25
|
| Scenic views |
7
|
| Sports |
30
|
| U.S. Army |
9
|
| Miscellaneous |
7
|
At Bowman's death the collection passed into the hands of the Umatilla County Court. Judge James H. Sturgis and Lee D. Drake (long-time partner in the East Oregonian Publishing Co., and at the time head of the Old Oregon Trail Committee of Umatilla County) selected those negatives "worth while\" and destroyed the rest (at least 900 images). The Library provided prints of the Bowman negatives to the donors, which presumably went to the Umatilla County Historical Society.
Related collections
This collection forms part of the Pendleton Group, a series of photograph collections from the Pendleton area, 1880s-1940s. Images from certain photographers, such as Bowman, may be found in many of these collections. The Pendleton Group includes the Lee Drake photographs (PH021), the Lee Moorhouse photographs (PH036), the Charles W. Furlong photographs (PH244), the Walter S. Bowman photographs (PH004), and the Electric Studio/O.G. Allen photographs (PH033). Related images are also held in the Print Collection (PH035) and the Park Weed Willis photographs (PH288).
Maintained by: N. Helmer, spcarref@uoregon.eduLast Modified: 08/09/2006