Williams Studio Glass Negatives Collection, ca. 1859-1920s

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator: Williams Studio

Title: Glass Negatives Collection, ca. 1859-1920s

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these photographs, contact the Collections Department.

Size of Collection: 3 boxes

Location Number:  994PC17

Biographical Note

John Wesley Williams (1821-1907) was born to Judge Wesley Williams (1792-1870) and Ruth Scobey Williams in 1821 in Paris, Kentucky. He married Ann Wilson (1834-1909) of Bloomfield in Shelby County, Kentucky, in 1854, and they had ten children together: Otho, Robert, Wesley, Mary, Susie, Samuel, Archibald, John, Thomas, and Henry. Archibald, Samuel, Mary, and Susie all died either in infancy or as young children. While most of the children stayed in Shelby County, John moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, and Wesley moved to Mississippi. John worked as a professional photographer with his son Otho in Shelbyville for his entire life.

Otho Hughes Williams (1855-1947) was born to John and Ann on October 9, 1855, in Shelby County. Like his father, Otho worked professionally as a photographer in Shelby County and later Mississippi, while he lived with his brother Wesley in the 1910s. Otho remained unmarried throughout his life, living with his brothers Tom and Henry on Frankfort Rd. (Route 60) as he got older. Based on his personal ledger, Otho continued taking photographs into his 80s. He died in Shelbyville in 1947, at the age of 91.

Robert Wilson Williams (1857-1884) worked as a bookkeeper for the Williamses’ photography business as a young man. He died at the age of 26.

Wesley Williams (1862-1925) joined the family business working as a printer for their photography company sometime around or before 1880. He married Georgiana Margaret Foreman (1863-1931) in Louisville in 1886. Wesley and Georgiana moved to Louisiana sometime between 1886 and 1900, where Wesley worked as a ticket broker. The family moved to Pass Christian, Mississippi, where John began working as a real estate agent and later as a cashier at Jackson Runs Sundry Company. Wesley died in 1925. His widow, Georgiana, married his brother Henry shortly after.

John Frazier Williams (1870-1945) married Letha Ragan (1873-1962) in Jeffersonville, Indiana, 1888. John and Letha had at least two children together: Otho and Horace Williams. John worked as a printer in New Orleans, teaching his son Otho the trade. John and Letha got divorced some time before 1900, when he remarried a woman named Susie M. Stephens in New Orleans. He died in 1945 at the age of 75.

Henry Green William (1875-1962), Thomas’s twin, practiced as a dentist in Shelbyville before moving to Pass Christian, Mississippi. Henry worked as a real estate agent while living in Mississippi. He married Wesley’s widow, Georgiana Foreman Williams, shortly after Wesley’s death in 1925. Henry moved back to Shelby County some time before 1940 and continued working as a dentist. He died of cardiac asthma at the age of 86 in Shelbyville.

Thomas Duncan Williams (1875-1962), Henry’s twin, worked as an electrician to help put Henry through the Louisville College of Dentistry. Henry went into practice in 1900 and then helped finance Thomas’s tuition at the same institution. They opened a joint practice in 1903. Thomas was married to Margaret Caughey in Shelbyville on June 15, 1910. They had two children who died in infancy, Ann R. and John Travis Williams. Their daughter Margaret, also known as Peggy, married William A. Miller of Shelbyville, a veteran of World War II.

 

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of three boxes of collodion wet plate and gelatin dry plate negatives taken by either John W. Williams or his son, Otho H. Williams, of Shelbyville, Kentucky. John and Otho were both professional photographers in Shelby County. Photographs in this collection are of their family and friends, different scenes around Shelby County, and views in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mississippi, where John’s sons, John and Wesley, lived respectively. Boxes are sorted by size and then subject.

Box 1 contains a mix of wet and dry plate (5″ x 7″) glass negatives of the following subjects: Williams family and their residences, miscellaneous groups and people of Shelbyville, Grove Hill Cemetery, New Orleans, and Pass Christian and Henderson Point, Mississippi.

Box 2 contains a mix of wet and dry half plate (4 1/2″ x 5 1/2″) glass negatives of the following subjects: Williams family and unidentified negatives.

Box 3 contains a mix of wet and dry quarter plate (3 1/4″ x 4 1/4″) glass negatives of the following subjects: miscellaneous views of Shelbyville, Grove Hill Cemetery, New Orleans, the Williams family, unidentified people, and a trip to Florence, Italy.

Items were box-level inventoried at some point by Otho H. Williams, and this original ledger is housed with the Williams Studio Glass Negatives Added Collection [024PC27].

Related collections:
Williams Studio Glass Negatives Added Collection [024PC27].

 

Box List

Box 1

Williams family

Includes photographs of Ann Wilson Williams, Otho H. Williams, Thomas Duncan Williams, Henry Green Williams, Susie Williams, Margaret “Peggy” Williams, Aunt Mag, Wesley Williams, John Williams, Otho Williams, George Williams, and Robert Williams

Williams family residences

Includes photographs of “Bleak House,” the Williamses’ residence in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and the family meat house

Miscellaneous groups and people of Shelbyville

Includes photographs of various groups and people of Shelbyville: a photograph identified as “Goodnight Reunion,” Hyter Tinsley’s family, Will McGrath (possibly), and a Glensboro Christian Church (Lawrenceburg, Ky.) group

Grove Hill Cemetery, Shelbyville

Various shots of graves and plots at Grove Hill Cemetery in Shelbyville, including Ann Wilson William’s grave, Archie and Samuel William’s graves, a stereograph of the Caldwell monument, and the Williamses’ family plot

New Orleans, Louisiana

Includes Metairie Cemetery and a Confederate soldier’s monument, a diver in a canal, an old street scene in New Orleans, and an unidentified house

Pass Christian and Henderson Point, Mississippi

Includes Wesley’s grave at Pass Christian, beach views, Mrs. Dock’s cottage in Henderson Point, a damaged pier, marshes, lovers’ lane, and ocean shots

 

Box 2

Williams family

Includes photographs of John W. Williams, Ann Wilson Williams, Otho H. Williams, Thomas D. Williams, Henry G. Williams, Peggy Williams, Robert Williams, Aunt Fanny, and Aunt Mag. Of special note are photographs of Otho’s outdoor photography studio set up with the camera, tents, and backdrops.

Unidentified people

Includes a mix of unidentified negatives and people that could potentially be who Williams identified as Bet Eades, Dr. Nuchols, Mag Davis, Dick Milton, Green Milton, and Dick Owen.

 

Box 3

Miscellaneous views of Shelbyville

Mix of views in Shelbyville, including fire damage to the Baptist Church, street views, and unidentified buildings, houses, and bridges.

Grove Hill Cemetery, Shelbyville

Various monuments and mausoleums at Grove Hill Cemetery, including ones for Scearce, Howell, Thomas and Sarah Miller, Emma Armstrong, Theophilus C. Davies, Mayes, Joyes’ and Karins’, and the Williamses’ family lot.

New Orleans

Negatives of City Park Canal Bridge and St. Louis Cemetery.

Williams family (quarter plates)

Includes members of the Williams family, including Ann Wilson Williams, John W. Williams, Archie Williams, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Otho W. Williams, Sammie Thurston Williams, Margaret Wilson, “Aunt Amy,” and “Cousin Mag Stone.”

Unidentified people (quarter plates)

Includes a mix of unidentified negatives and people that could potentially be who Williams identified as Grandma, Sally, Mrs. Groghan, Katie Burgin, and Welby Burgin.

Italy (quarter plates)

Includes a photograph of St. Peter’s Cathedral and Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini at the Loggia dei Lanzi in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy.

 

Subject Headings

Cellini, Benvenuto, 1500-1571.

Cemeteries.

City Park (New Orleans, La.)

Grove Hill Cemetery (Shelbyville, Ky.)

Henderson Point (Miss.)

Italian art.

Metairie Cemetery (New Orleans, La.)

New Orleans (La.)

Pass Christian (Miss.)

Photographers.

Photography – Negatives

Shelbyville (Ky.)

St. Louis Cemetery #1 (New Orleans, La.)

Williams, Ann Wilson, 1834-1909.

Williams, Archibald Eli, 1865-1867.

Williams, Henry Green, 1875-1962.

Williams, Horace Wesley, 1890-1953.

Williams, John Wesley, 1821-1907.

Williams, Mary Elizabeth, 1867-1876.

Williams, Otho H., 1855-1947.

Williams, Robert Wilson, 1857-1884.

Williams, Samuel Thurston, 1859-1864.

Williams, Thomas Duncan, 1875-1962.