All posts by Sandy History Lady

Another Hill Photograph Dust Jacket

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I used this antique postcard for the dust jacket of my third pictorial history book. Just as was true of Stuart on the St. Lucie, I did not realize the image was the product of the Florida Photographic Concern.

At the time I published my books I did not understand that postcard publishers, like Hugh C. Leighton, secured their images from the Hill family’s Florida Photographic Concern in Fort Pierce.

For this blog, I found the postcard I used and was shocked to see that the postcard had been cropped for the dust jacket. Below is the complete postcard. The Alfresco Hotel that appears at right was cropped off when the dust jacket was designed.

The Alfresco Hotel that appears at right was cropped off when the dust jacket was designed.

This Hugh C. Leighton Co. postcard shows the fine quality of printing done in Germany during the “Golden Age of Postcards.”

The Al Fresco Hotel, designed by Louis F. Kwiatkowski for John Jensen in 1893, burned in 1911 after being purchased by R. R. Ricou.

Amazing Appearance of 75 Hundred-Year-Old Florida Photographic Concern Prints

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I was blown away when Tootsie Kindberg started posting very old photos on Facebook. I knew they were the product of the Florida Photographic Concern. Strangely, most of them had strips of paper with captions typed on them glued at the bottom.

Why were they suddenly appearing? Where had they been? Why were there so many of them?

As it turned out Tootsie’s being a member of the Hillier family with connections to many other Florida Photographic Concern photographs was just a coincidence.

Tootsie had been a commercial photographer with access to a dark room. The photographs were put aside after an acquaintance gave them to her. Years passed and Tootsie not only forgot the photographs she forgot who had given them to her. When Tootsie came across the photograph recently she scanned them and shared them on Facebook.

In addition to the 75 photographs Tootsie posted an almost illegible, cellophane tape patched document that included a date.

THE HARD TO READ WORDS ARE TYPED BELOW

PHOTOGRAPHS

Made and secured especially for the consideration of the

United States Government Engineers

at the

PUBLIC HEARING IN STUART, FLA. JANUARY 16th, 1923

And present to them as part of the

facts, figures, data and reports

answering the questions they asked

to arrive at an opinion regarding

the recommendations of

GOVERNMENT AID FOR A DEEP WATER HARBOR HERE

Photographs were carefully limited to views in and near Stuart, Fla, and in the territory directly

Tributaries to the prospective Harbor here the North and

South Forks of the St. Lucie River, the Indian River close

to Stuart, the St. Lucie Control Canal, Salerno, Hobe Sound, Port Sewall and the Inlet.

The aim of the pictures is to back up the reports

A VERY LONG ARTICLE ABOUT A MEETING IN STUART OF DIGNITARIES AND US. ENGINEERS APPEARED INTHE STUART MESSENGER ON JANUARY 18, 1923.THIS IS WHERE THE PHOTOGRAPHS WERE SHOWN TO PROVE THE NEED FOR A PORT

The Hellier Family and the Florida Photographic Concern

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A previous blog focused on Walter Hellier’s book, Indian River Florida’s Treasure Coast filled with photographs from the Florida Photographic Concern

A series of curious coincidences brought me in contact with his granddaughters who had a fabulous collection Florida Photographic Concern photos. They allowed me to scan them. There were several dozen with a wide range of subjects but just a few could be directly .connected to today’s Martin County.

This Hill rattlesnake portrait could illustrate the many that once inhabited the St. Lucie River region.
 

 

This photograph was among the many Walter Hellier’s granddaughters let me scan. It has a local connection because the sailboat is flying the burgee of the Gilbert’s Bar Yacht Club that had a clubhouse south of the House of Refuge on Hutchinson Island. Many of our well-to-do pioneers were members.

Jim Hutchinson, Mary VanDerlofske and Susie Bryant

Walter Helier’s granddaughters, Marilyn VanDerlofske and Susan Bryant, residents of Palm Beach County, were happy to visit me because they could also visit my famous-artist neighbor , the late Jim Hutchinson. This photograph of the three of them was taken on February 8, 2018.

Hill Family of the Florida Photographic Concern

Bee Keeping, Fishing, Florida Photographic Concern, Ft. Pierce, Indian River, St. Lucie River., Titusville, PA, , , ,

Harry Hill, originally from Ontario, moved to Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1884 where he met and married Katherine Nelson.  He studied and worked as an apiarist in Canada, California and Cuba but chose to settle in Florida in 1894. Harry and Katherine’s son, Lowell, was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the year before, so they moved to Florida with an infant.  After setting up an apiary in New Smyrna, the Hills settled in Spruce Bluff on the North Fork of the St. Lucie River.

The Hills moved to Ft. Pierce in 1898 where Harry,  not only was managing editor of the American Bee Keeper, he launched into pineapple culture on a large scale.  Photographs were increasingly enhancing the magazine. Soon Harry’s interest and growing skills as a photographer overshadowed his other enterprises. By 1905, advertisements for the Florida Photographic Concern were appearing in the St. Lucie News Tribune.

This advertisement began appearing in the St. Lucie News Tribune in 1905.

Harry Hill was producing commercial photographs by the turn of the 20th Century.

This appeared in the July 1906. It has Florida Photographic Concern embedded in the photograph but the image was probably made before the company was founded.   James Heddon and Harry Hill were associates for many years.

These almost identical photographs were published in the June 1907 American Bee Keeper. Harry Hill was making the point that photographs on semi-matte stock reproduce better that ones on glossy paper. The article explained his engravers, “one of the best house in New York” preferred matte.

American Bee Keepers subscribers lived throughout the United States and in other countries!  HOW IN THE WORLD DID HARRY HILL MANAGE THIS?

The last American Bee Keeper was published in June 1908.

Stanley Kitching’s St. Lucie River Yacht Club

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Stanley Kitching spearheaded a movement to establish a yacht club in Stuart. In 1917 a clubhouse was built on pilings in the St. Lucie River. Stanley was made commodore.

Stanley Kitching

This postcard was published in Ashville, N. C. by the Ashville Post Card Co. I wondered why it wasn’t published by Stanley then thought about the beginning of World War I that made it impossible for him to have postcards printed in Germany as he had previously.

Sometimes historical deductions do not quite align. The image on these porcelain tourist items. Stanley Kitching must have ordered and sold, is obviously the same as on the postcard above. However, “Made in Germany” appears on the bottoms of each.

My husband and I never found any other early porcelain items with a St. Lucie Region connection.

The St. Lucie River Yacht Club was destroyed in the by the disastrous hurricane of September 17, 1928.

Mary Parsons, who lived on the St. Lucie River, typed a report on the back of the white bordered St. Lucie River Yacht Club postcard.

St. Luice River Yacht Club Card

The pilings of the St. Lucie River Yacht Club can be seen in the river west of the River Walk dock.

Learning of Stanley Kitching’s and Harry Hill’s Early Association

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Stanley Kitching arrived on the Indian River from England with his parents as a ten-year-old boy in 1884.Harry Hill came to the east coast of Florida in 1894 as he was approaching 30.

They were both Southeast Florida pioneers. After setting up apiaries in New Smyrna and Spruce Bluff, Harry moved to Ft. Pierce with his wife Kate and young son, Lowell. The family previously lived in Titusville, Pennsylvania, not to be confused with Titusville, Florida. What a conscience! Stanley Kitching was using Harry Hill’s photographs as soon as the Florida Photographic Concern was founded.

The above item is in the archives of the Historical Society of Martin County located in the Elliott Museum.

Stanley Kitching secured rights to use Harry Hill’s photographs on postcards he had printed in Germany just like big firms like Hugh L. Leighton of Maine and other large publishers.

Above is the front and back of a postcard published by Stanley Kitching. There are a dozen or so others. It shows that there was an early commercial relationship between Stanley Kitching and the Florida

Using the Information Highway

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The work of the Florida Photographic Concern of Fort Pierce is an under-appreciated treasure. My husband and I collected everything we could connected to the Harry Hill family and their Florida Photographic Concern. Now, by going to    newspaper.com the Hills’ historical photographs have added significance

This photograph has been displayed in various places in Ft. Pierce without information to go with it. By studying other photographs, the driver can be identified as Lowell Hill. His father, Harry Hill’s face appears over his shoulder. The woman beside Harry is Lowell’s mother Katherine Hill. The woman at extreme left is unidentified. Fred Hill, Harry’s bother (Lowell’s uncle) is in the passenger seat. (St. Lucie Regional History Center)

http://St. Lucie Regional History Center

This advertisement published in the April 4, 1913 St. Lucie News Tribune enables us to identify the car. It also tells us the the Hills’ business was growing.

I had never heard of a H.B. McIntyre automobile!

The Evolution of Picture Postcards

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FRONT

The Hills’ Florida Photographic Concern published postcards like this one before “The Golden Era of Postcards.”

BACK

A colorized version of the Florida Photographic Concern’s photograph of oxen hauling citrus shows it was printed by the Drew Company of Jacksonville.

I Googled the company and it is still in business after 165 years.

The Florida Photographic Concern sold its work to numerous publishers; the most prominent was the Hugh C. Leighton Co. Manufacturers of Portland, Maine.  Publishers took advantage of the superior printing in Germany before World War I made it impossible.

The Hugh C. Leighton Co. published this Florida Photographic Concern image. The exquisite printing illustrates the meaning of the “Golden Age of Postcards.”

Earliest Picture Postcards

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My husband and I collected old postcards whenever they contained something pertaining to the East Coast of Florida.

We learned that collecting postcards has been an incredibly popular hobby ever since they came into use. From 1901 until 1907 you could not write on the back of a postcard. The back was undivided and was only to be used for the address and the postage stamp.

Beginning in 1907 the backs were divided. The address went on the right hand side and the message was written on the left hand side. From then until 1915 was the “Golden Age of Postcards.”

The Address Side

This is an example a Florida Photographic Concern photograph used on a post card before 1907. The message had to be squeezed onto the front.

Other early postcards before 1907:

Unrecognized Hill Photographs

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I knew what I wanted to use for the dust jacket of my photographic history of Stuart, Florida before I began to assemble it.

Stuart on the St. Lucie A Pictorial History Book

The image is from a postcard. It took me years to realize it was the product of Harry Hill’s Florida Photographic Concern.

THIS IS THE POSTCARD:

Rare Postcard Early Stuart, Florida
Stanley Kitching’s “Big Store” is at left. Stanley’s Uncle Boster Kitching’s store, housing the Stuart Post Office is at right. In the center is George W. Parks General Merchandise Store that stands today as the Stuart Heritage Museum.

Could there be a better, more beautiful image for my dust jacket?

At the front of the book I put a “full-bleed” photograph (meaning it covered the entire 12 inch by 9 inch page) of a very similar photograph.

Hill photograph of early Stuart, Florida

Below this photograph, I inserted a quote from Ernie Lyons “The business district of our old town was ugly. It was a single row of frame stores with false fronts along Flagler Avenue and the railroad tracks. It looked like nothing so much as a Western mining town” I credited the photograph to Robert Gladwin.

 Robert Gladwin, a member of a Ft. Pierce pioneer family, rescued many Florida Photograph Concern glass negatives when they were being broken, scattered and lost to posterity. He recognized their value and learned to clean and print them. They became the basis of the founding of the Saint Lucie Historical Society.  Robert Gladwin and another member of a Ft. Pierce pioneer family, A. A “Buck” Henry Jr., became my friends. They gave me historical photographs of Stuart and Jensen.   The photographs were the product of THE FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHIC CONCERN.

My next blog will be about early postcards, printed in Germany.