The Hand Colored Photography of William James Harris

Interest in early 20th-century hand-colored pictures via “Harris” has been growing in recent years, mainly in Harris’s Florida scenes. Yet I’ll guess that most creditors do not even realize Harris’s first name, not to mention anything about his historical past.

We had no statistics on Harris until numerous years ago when we mentioned Harris in a preceding article and asked readers to supply us with any regarded statistics. As a result, we received an editorial on Harris postcards and an editorial posted on Harris by way of the St. Augustine Historical Society in 1991, each of which shed vast light on William James Harris’s hand-colored images career.

William James Harris (1868-1940) was born on October 12, 1868, in Herefordshire, England. His family emigrated to America in 1870, settling in the Wilkes Barre, PA, region. Known in his children as both “Will” and “Willie,” by age 20, he apprenticed under a nearby photographer. Within three hundred and sixty-five days, he began his first image enterprise while dwelling with his parents and operating his first studio inside their residence.

In 1890, the 22-year-old antique Harris moved with his family to W. Pittston, PA, where, even though he continued operating a studio in his mother and father’s home, he additionally began his career as a traveling photographer. During the early 1890s, he spent extensive time photographing coal miners and mining operations in jap Pennsylvania’s coal regions. Soon after, he started utilizing the railroads to transport him and his photography device to the mountains, lakes, towns, and wherever else he determined to take his camera. Cabinet photos sold via Harris round this time listed his address as West Pittston, PA; Tunkhannock, PA; Pittston, PA; Penn Yan, NY; Binghamton, NY; and Keuka, NY

In 1893, Harris traveled to the World Columbia Exposition in Chicago. While there, he started the primary of many subsequent promotional feats. One of the focal factors of the 1893 Columbia Exposition changed into the first-ever advent of George Ferris’s amazing “Ferris Wheel”. And it becomes Harris who changed into the first to picture it. He expected that by mountain climbing upon a roof of approximately equal height because of the Ferris Wheel’s middle shaft, he could produce a view whereby the curves of the wheel were not distorted vertically by using attitude. This photograph became so surprising that Harris donated 2000 of them to the Ferris Wheel Company, each of which included his name and cope, which helped to make an early name for the young photographer.

Lake Hopatcong: It was in 1898 that Harris moved to a place that might play a vital function in his existence…Lake Hopatcong, NJ. It is located in northern New Jersey and has 9 miles of coastline and coves, making it New Jersey’s largest lake. On the flip of the century, Lake Hopatcong was a summer season mecca for the wealthy and well-known. Conveniently placed in a nearby New York metropolis, Lake Hopatcong presented a smooth summer getaway from the town heat, and plenty of summertime “cottages”, which often had been more like mansions, began arising across the lake. Harris quickly recognized the want for his photographic offerings here throughout the summer.

Beautiful sunsets have become the Harris trademark at the same time as running on Lake Hopatcong. He turned farsighted enough to set himself up on the part of the lake that was recognized as having quality sunsets. Being the extremely good promoter he changed into, Harris commenced advertising his studio to impart the greatest sundown pix at the lake. Soon, travelers started flocking to his studio for private and family pics on Lake Hopatcong.

In every other flow of public relations genius, Harris created his personal “Floating Studio” within the summer season of 1899. Replacing his land-primarily based transportable studio, this floating studio was truly a houseboat specially outfitted as a photographic studio. Called the “Harris Photo Float”, this sixteen’x50′ floating studio became capable of journeying around the lake or even had a unique porch for his famous sunset pics. Although different photographers had also been working around the lake, Harris’ floating studio and his gift for promotional effect gave him an aggressive part over the opposite photographers, and he controlled a tremendous part of the lake’s picture enterprise. Unfortunately, in 190,3 Harris’ floating studio sprang a knothole leak and sank, taking tons of Harris’ photographic devices with ite.

But he quickly recovered from this catastrophe and went directly to preserve an almost forty-year courting with Lake Hopatcong. Harris persevered with his summer visits to the lake until 1939, when he was in his 60s, and his photography profession started winding down.

St. Augustine, Florida: In 1898, Harris moved to St. Augustine, Florida, where he opened the “Acme View Company”. Harris’s Florida photographic offerings protected the sale of cameras and systems unfastened photographic instructions to amateur photographers using his darkroom and professional photographic offerings to local citizens or visiting tourists. He aalso lost no time photographing the stunning points of interest in St. Augustine and the encompassing Florida geographical region.