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James W. Shipler founded Shipler Commercial Photographers when he moved to Salt Lake City in 1890. His son, Harry, joined the firm a few years later. The Shiplers worked out of various business locations around Salt Lake City, sometimes together and sometimes independently. Besides the normal studio work they were hired by business and industry to photograph their structures. The Utah State Historical Society acquired their negative collection in 1988 and the studio, then on Main Street near 100 South, closed in 1989.
The collection is the work of commercial photographers James William Shipler, his son Harry, and grandson George William, also known as Bill.
James William Shipler was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, in 1849. An avid trout fisherman, Shipler was fascinated by published stories about the West--high mountain streams teaming with trout, endless prairies crowded with buffalo, deer, and antelope, and the prospects of high adventure. In 1872 he quit his job, left his wife with his parents, and eventually settled in Denver where he established a photograph studio. Around 1889 he again moved--this time to Great Falls, Montana, where he opened another studio. Business was poor and in 1890 he moved to Salt Lake City. Shipler used the latest trends in photography, switching to the faster, more convenient bromide papers mass produced by Eastman Kodak Company. This new process allowed him to go places other early Utah photographers could not. He was among the first non-Mormon photographers to set up a gallery in Salt Lake City, and he was instantly patronized by both Mormon and non-Mormon clientele.
James and his son Harry ran two separate photography businesses in Salt Lake City until 1909 when Harry joined his father's studio. James William Shipler loved to trout fish and he surrounded himself with friends who had similar interests--to the point of setting up a back room in his studio where they could gather to sit, read, drink coffee, and swap tales. In 1914 the elder Shipler turned his business over to his son Harry in order to spend more time fly fishing. While James documented crucial events in Utah's history during his twenty-four years as a photographer--such as the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple--his son Harry produced a thorough documentation of almost every aspect of life in Utah. When James William died at the age of eighty-eight, he was eulogized as "the dean of Salt Lake photographers."
Not content to be a portrait photographer, Harry Shipler developed into one of Utah's earliest news photographers. He supplied photographs to local newspapers, whose artists made line drawings for publication. At one time Harry supplied photographs to five Utah newspapers. One of his most talked about exploits was the documentation of Park City, Utah, a mining community thirty miles east of Salt Lake City, after it burned in 1898. When Harry learned of the fire, he attached his camera to his bicycle and eight hours later arrived in Park City--no small feat since it was all uphill on dirt roads--where he documented the destroyed town. His professional motto was: "I go anywhere to photograph anything."
As the newspapers learned to make halftones, Shipler was in even greater demand. He traveled around the Intermountain West taking pictures for a wide variety of clients. He documented an avalanche at the Highland Boy mine, Utah's first automobile accidents, the telegraphers' union walkout as well as other labor strikes, construction of Utah's Capitol building, installation of Salt Lake City's transit system, and the Wright Brothers visit to Utah. He also took early photographs of Yellowstone National Park.
Fascinated by automobiles Harry purchased his first car around 1905. He loved to travel over Utah's wagon trails in his high-clearance vehicle; once he and a friend drove from Salt Lake City to the Grand Canyon in an open roadster in one day. They distributed that day's edition of the
When Harry Shipler passed away in 1961 he was eulogized in the
Harry Shipler probably knew as much about photography as anyone in this state--or a dozen states, for that matter--for he was a pioneer in the art. The principles of photography had, of course, been discovered before he was born, but he was taking excellent pictures long before such refinements as light meters or fast film was available.
George William Shipler, Harry's son, also known as Bill, founded Bill Shipler Photo in the early 1930s. Bill continued the commercial photography business and also opened a retail store for the sale of photographic equipment. In the late 1930s his father Harry closed his studio and went to work for his son Bill as a bookkeeper. When George Shipler died in 1956, he passed his business to his son William Hollis Shipler, also known as Bill, from whom the Utah State Historical Society obtained the negative collection in 1988.
The Shipler Negative Collection provides a comprehensive pictorial history of buildings, people, events, etc. in the Intermountain West. While the Shiplers were photographers for hire, they were also avid recreational photographers who documented their own interests and activities. The activities included sports, travel, and such leisure activities as fishing, biking, and automobile racing. The Shipler photographs frame a time period that is gone forever.
The Shiplers were master photographers who practiced their craft with skill and style. The images in this collection, especially during the initial years when they used large format (mostly 8 x 10) glass negatives, are among the finest found anywhere.
This collection is important for research because the photographs were not generated strictly for aesthetic purposes; they were made to document events or places (i.e., parades, celebrations, local businesses, livestock companies, industries, etc.).
This collection documents change in a very accurate manner. The Shiplers were in business for nearly 100 years and had repeat customers. They were called back to photograph the same businesses and industries over and over again, dramatically documenting changes. These pictures add to our historical knowledge, recording small, often overlooked details. They document a changing society--from horse to automobile to airplanes, from rural to city, from farm to industry, from single family dwelling to apartment houses, and from small shops to large department stores. Since the Shiplers almost always included people in their photographs, they show those who experienced these changes: young boys in the local Boot Blacks Union, construction workers who built Utah's buildings, mine workers, and women working in local candy factories.
While the Shiplers were paid for most of their work, they had interests that they enjoyed documenting--sports and recreational activities, entertainment, and travel and tourism, leisure activities, fishing, camping, and automobile touring. Thousands of their photographs included images of people in everyday situations; they document fashion, dress, and design. This collection also graphically illustrates labor conditions, unions, and strikes.
This collection documents the history of the Intermountain West in the twentieth century as no other collection does. The emergence of modern America is documented in architecture, transportation, urbanization, transportation, etc. The images document popular culture and social history. The collection has value to researchers because of the many subject areas represented.
This collection is an organic archival collection, that is, it was created by a single firm over a period of nearly 100 years, and the images in the collection reflect the work of the company and the interests of its principals and clients.
The collection is treated as an archival fonds. Following archival principles, we respect the collection's original order. The Shiplers assigned a unique serial number to each image and they used this number for all references and to organize the negatives. We maintain the original order. The Shipler ID number will be used throughout this project as the key to identify each image. Since some negatives were not numbered, we arranged them in four additional series, each grouped by size and format. The negatives in these series were each given a unique number. The Shiplers also made special series, one each for sunsets and Yellowstone National Park.
10,000 images have been digitized through a grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities and 220 images supported in part by an LSTA grant
from the Utah State Library Division.
Shipler Commercial Photographers Collection. Utah State Historical Society.
The Shipler Collection was created by the Shipler Commercial Photographer firm of Salt Lake City. It was acquired by the Utah State Historical Society in 1988.
The Shipler Collection is the physical property of the Utah Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah. The Society also owns copyright. Please contact the Historical Society for information regarding specific use of this collection.
Approximately 750 photographs of national parks and forests and
other western topics are in the Harry Shipler Photograph Collection, ca. 1920s,
Clifford Bray Photograph Collection
Approximately fifty Shipler photographs, some predating 1903, are at the Montana Historical Society and at Brigham Young University.
The Utah State Archives has a series of Shipler prints that document the construction of the Utah State Capitol.
The Shiplers prepared a 3 x 5 card file as a subject index to the collection. It is available at the Utah History Information Center at the Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City.
The collection can also be