After the Civil War, William A. Henderson practiced law in Knoxville and served as a judge prior to joining the Southern Railway in 1894 as assistant counsel. Living in Washington, D.C., and in Knoxville, he worked for the 1896-97 Tennessee…
Did the Kodak camera make it possible to record emotion? Photographers could capture emotions easily with shorter exposure times with Kodak film cameras introduced in 1888. The subsequent craze for smiling images taken outdoors can be summed up in…
By 1880, middle class women enjoyed active new summer sports like archery and tennis. While some players wore fine wool clothes called tuxedo suits, others dressed more casually like Mary Henderson, Robert Clark and their friends. One fan described…
Reverend John W. Tarboux worked in Brazil as a Methodist missionary and high school principal for 37 years. His wife Susan was James Kirkland’s sister. Their son Willie, aged one, wears polka dots. His older sister wears a fancy bonnet. Juiz de…
Harriet Smiley was born in Vermont in 1838; her family included Revolutionary War officer Colonel John Barrett. She graduated from the Knoxville Female Academy and married William Henderson in November 1866. Harriet’s fashionable dress dates this…
William Henderson served the Confederate States of America as aid-de-camp on staff of Brigadier-General Leadbetter and later Major-General Heth. Wounded at Petersburg, he was captured and spent four months a prisoner in Washington and upstate New…
American parents around 1900 faced issues familiar to parents today, including balancing their children’s needs with their own. While we do not know much about Elizabeth's caretaker Ida, we can see the affectionate gesture of the little girl.…
Weiser’s four studios across downtown Knoxville catered to the residents of a booming industrial and violent city in the early 1900s. Railroad expansion after the Civil War connected eastern Tennessee with the rest of the South, bringing Welsh,…
Today when a cellphone holds thousands of photographs, it’s easy to forget that holding a loved one’s image in your hand was until recently, impossible for all but the wealthy. This young woman, posing for her portrait, wears her corset laced to…