Digitized Graves photos to go on display

The prints have been selected from among the first 100 glass plate negatives in the collection that have been digitized in the Octavo Imaging Laboratory located in the Sandoz Center.

The show will open Wednesday, Sept. 15 with a reception from 3 to 8 p.m. It will remain on display through Nov. 24.

The digitization has been done by Martha Blegen of Chadron, who worked full-time for Octavo when it digitized the Gutenberg Bible and other historical documents. She said because of the fragile nature of the glass plates, only about 10 of them can be processed in a day. But the work is expected to preserve the images for many years, perhaps forever.

The negatives were shot by pioneer photographers Ray and Faye Graves in the Chadron area from 1906 through the 1930s.

While the Graveses were outstanding professionals, their talents were almost obliterated and their work forgotten until about 10 percent of their glass plate negatives was rescued during demolition of their old studio at 250 Main Street in 1973.

The negatives had been stacked in a cabinet for many years and then sealed behind a false wall before a bulldozer helped discover the hiding place. When workmen heard the breaking of glass above the rumble of the bulldozer, they found the cache.

While an estimated 9,000 of the glass plates were shattered, the remaining 1,100 are considered a treasure, helping record the people, places and things in Chadron’s formative years. Don and Frances Huls, long-time publishers of the Chadron Record, recovered as many of the negatives as possible and later donated them to Chadron State.

Research conducted this summer by CSC sophomore Philip Krepel determined that Ray Graves was a native of Carleton, Neb., located about 50 miles southeast of Hastings. Graves was only 20 when he came to Chadron in 1906 and purchased the studio of a retiring photographer. While digging through abstract records at the Dawes County Courthouse, Krepel found that Graves’ mother, Ida, helped finance the purchase.

Three years later, Ray married Faye McManimie, a young Chadron woman who also became a photographer. A year after their marriage, the couple moved their studio to the Main Street location and spent $1,500 remodeling the building that was being demolished 63 years later when the glass negatives were located.

Images of Native Americans are a feature of the Graves collection. One of the prized portraits is a what Krepel’s research determined is probably the last photo taken of Chief Red Cloud shortly before his death in 1909.

Dr. Allen Shepherd, long-time history professor at CSC, also has done considerable research on the Ray and Faye Graves. He said a pioneer photographer provided an invaluable service, “capturing images of space and time which no conventional historian could.”

He said in order to help her husband as much as possible, Faye attended several seminars for aspiring photographers. One of her shots won first prize at the Illinois College of Photography in 1914.

Tragedy struck in March 1919, when Ray Graves was one of the 25 victims of the Spanish flu epidemic in Chadron. Her husband’s death was hard on Faye. Shepherd said she apparently leased the studio for a couple of years before returning to run it in 1921. He said Faye Graves’ photos continued to be of high quality and she became involved in numerous Chadron activities before selling the business in 1940 and, in his words “moved from Chadron and simply vanished.”

Krepel said he also was unable to find any conclusive information about Faye after she sold the studio

Even though the glass plate process that the Graveses used was much more labor-intensive and time consuming than today’s negative or digital procedures, the photos they took were as sharp as the modern versions. The digitalization is not being done any too soon. Those who have worked with the glass plates say they continually deteriorate even when special care is given them.