Contents: About the Collection | Tech

About the Collection

The Photographs

In 1964, the University of Idaho Library received a collection of over 200,000 nitrocellulose and glass plate negatives taken by Nellie Stockbridge and her predecessor and founder of the studio, Mr. T.N. Barnard. The photos were taken during 1894-1964 of various aspects of life in the Wallace/Kellogg mining area. Prints were made of many of the negatives, and the photographs and negatives were cataloged by the Special Collections Department.

T.N. Barnard

In 1889, T.N. Barnard and his wife moved to Wallace, Idaho where he established his photo studio. The studio was destroyed in a fire in 1890 with a small amount of his negatives surviving. Most of the photographs taken in the early years “included landscapes, placer workings, townscapes, and panoramic views” of Wallace and Murray Idaho, taken on 5 x 7 and 8 x 10 dry-plate negatives. Barnard made most of his living from his landscape photographs, which were for sale to the general public and commissioned portraits.

Nellie Stockbridge

In 1898, Nellie Jane Stockbridge left her home in central Illinois to accept Thomas Barnard’s offer of employment in his Wallace, Idaho photo studio. Stockbridge was a dedicated photographer and businesswoman. In 1907, she purchased a quarter share of the business and eventually assumed full ownership when Barnard became the mayor of Wallace. Over the next few decades, working often to exhaustion, Nellie photographed the people and places of one of the richest mining areas of the world, the Coeur d’Alene Mining District. While portrait photography was the mainstay of her studio, Nellie skillfully photographed the area’s mining industries, both above ground and below, creating a visual record of historical significance to Idaho and beyond. Nellie Stockbridge died on May 22, 1965. (text by Julie Monroe)