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    The Photography of Henry K. Landis: Pennsylvania and New York, 1886-1955
    The Photography of Henry K. Landis: Pennsylvania and New York, 1886-1955
    The Photography of Henry K. Landis: Pennsylvania and New York, 1886-1955
    Ebook248 pages1 hour

    The Photography of Henry K. Landis: Pennsylvania and New York, 1886-1955

    By Oscar Beisert and Irwin Richman

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    About this ebook

    A collection of photographs documenting a diverse array of lifestyles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Pennsylvania and New York by amateur photographer Henry K. Landis (1865-1955).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStackpole Books
    Release dateMar 1, 2013
    ISBN9780811749930
    The Photography of Henry K. Landis: Pennsylvania and New York, 1886-1955

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      The Photography of Henry K. Landis - Oscar Beisert

      Authors

      Preface

      This book was difficult, primarily because one author, Oscar Beisert, was living in twenty-first-century Washington, D.C., and the other, Irwin Richman, lives in late-nineteenth-century Pennsylvania. One author types his captions on a computer and the other edits them with an ink pen. Additionally, the transition from teacher and student to coequal authors has not been easy or quiet, but we believe the end result is worth the sturm und drang.

      After Oscar completed his graduate degree—an academic medley of art and architectural history meets public policy—he moved from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Brooklyn to do a three-month survey of 890 buildings in midtown Manhattan, and thence on to Washington, D.C., for four years as a contract architectural historian for federal agencies. In the same period, Irwin, Oscar’s graduate school professor and mentor, began sending to him via mail random clippings, photocopies, and other miscellaneous items of interest, just as someone of his generation and ilk often still likes to do. Among these images were various copies of photographs taken by Henry K. Landis. It wasn’t until time passed that Oscar realized that a collection was intact at the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, where Irwin had been volunteering since 2004. The images ranged from early-twentieth-century New York street scenes to late-nineteenth-century views of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The more Irwin sent, the more he heard from Oscar, you should do a book. Eventually, it was suggested that instead of he writing, it should be we writing. With our visual minds, Irwin’s experience and refinement, and Oscar’s research and more modern eye, here we are—the book. It’s finally done.

      Both of us worked at selecting the photographs and the writing. Irwin, who has lived most of his life in Central Pennsylvania and who first visited Landis Valley in 1961, has written the bulk of the captions about Henry’s Lancaster County life. Irwin, Professor Emeritus of American Studies and History at Penn State, is currently a Research Associate at Landis Valley. Three of his former graduate students have been the museum’s directors, including the incumbent, James Lewars.

      Irwin was born and grew up in New York City, but Oscar, born and raised in suburban Houston, Texas, is the consummate northeastern urbanite. He has the true zeal of a convert. Accordingly, he is primarily responsible for those portions of the book relating to Henry’s life and times in New York City. He grudgingly applies his suburban expertise to Henry’s life in (now suburban) Port Washington, Long Island, as well.

      Many individuals and the staffs of many institutions have been of great help to us. Thank you Alma Steingart, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Anthony Randolph and J. B. Pelletier, Nautical Archaeologists, URS Corporation; Piia Helve, Architectural Historian, Frederick, Maryland; Christopher Gray, Architectural Historian and New York Times columnist; Elly Shodell, Local History Director, and the rest of the staff at the Port Washington New York Public Library; Maxine Friedman, Chief Curator of the Staten Island Historical Society; the Estates of Alfred Steiglitz and Edward Steichen; the librarians and curators at The Avery Library of Columbia University; The New York Historical Society; The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg; The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania; The Hagley Foundation; the Tenement Museum, and the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center.

      The professional staff at the Landis Valley Museum has been especially supportive, beginning with Director James Lewars. Bruce Bomberger, Nicole Wagner, and Jennifer Royer have curatorial responsibility for the Landis Valley photographic collections and archives. Bruce’s doctoral dissertation, The Making of Museum Makers: The Landis Brothers of Lancaster County, Lehigh University, 2011, is invaluable. Craig Benner, a colleague at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and a talented photographer, has helped with the technical quality of our images. Most important of all has been Michael B. Emery of the Landis Valley staff, who has overseen the compiling and ordering of the illustrations in the book and who helps Irwin to function in the digital age.

      —OB and IR

      While I could recognize (and thank) everyone including my dear ole Granny, the first person to really show me beauty; Mom, who proved that anyone can do anything, Dad, who could always do or build anything with his hands; my often neglected brother who impressively pulled through; the self-confidence of both my paternal and maternal grandfathers; the down-to-earth quality of my dearly departed paternal grandmother; my dear Aunt Jay; the faith and support of friends and their votes of confidence—Colte, Eric Camp, Giles, LaRue, Liff, Lisa Guerre, Mom’s Cathy, Mooney, Piia, Regina & Joey, Rose, Septime, Spivey, and Tavy. Yes, while I could recognize all of them, let me recognize and thank one person—Dr. Irwin Richman—perhaps at the heart of it, you are the only person I’ve ever met who really understands the importance of beauty. You not only shared your knowledge and your passion, you took a chance on an unknown—and for that I thank you.

      —OB

      I especially want to thank my wife, Dr. M. Susan Richman, who has always been supportive of my interests, now, in retirement, as she was when actively involved in her career as a university professor and administrator. Now she translates my handwriting into legible, computer-enhanced imagery—even more important, she edits my work.

      —IR

      Henry K. Landis and the World of Photography

      Best remembered as the nice old man who cofounded the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, Henry K. Landis was much more complex. Henry’s museum, located in a once-rural section of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is acclaimed as America’s foremost attraction devoted to the preservation of the Pennsylvania German (Pennsylvania Dutch) culture. But within the massive collection exists, virtually unknown, an extensive collection of photographs whose contents are both homey and surprising. They reflect an unusual life.

      The most familiar images of Henry are of a kindly, white-bearded gentleman, bearing a striking resemblance to Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken renown; however, unlike Colonel Sanders, who was in his sixties when he found his niche, Henry’s successes began much earlier, and his interests and his passions were in the plural. While his museum career began later in life, Henry’s collections at Landis Valley reveal these earlier interests and accomplishments, which make Henry a compelling and, in many ways, an underappreciated figure in American history. Tucked away among the more than one hundred thousand items in the collection of the Landis Valley museum is the large group of images that Henry captured long before photography had evolved into the simple, almost universal, hobby that we know today. As photographic giant Edward Steichen wrote, Photography is a medium of formidable contradictions. It is both ridiculously easy and almost impossibly difficult. Henry was an amateur, but a serious amateur, and he was a contemporary of many of the great pioneer names in American photography.

      Henry Kinzer Landis (1865–1955) was younger than Jacob Riis (1849–1914), whose How the Other Half Lives apparently had a profound effect on his work. He was the same generation as Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), F. Holland Day (1864–1946), and Alice Austen (1866–1952) and a

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