Collection of Eleven Photographs Taken at Camp Nyoda, Oak Ridge, New Jersey [many signed by Tarbox]
- SIGNED
- New York: Jessie Tarbox Beals, 1920
New York: Jessie Tarbox Beals, 1920. Very Good. New York: Jessie Tarbox Beals, n.d., ca. 1920. Collection of eleven photographs (ca. 15x23 to 18.5x24cm. or the inverse). Light wear from handling, one image with tiny pinholes in all four corners, many of the images signed by Beals in pencil or pen in the lower margin, a few images with manuscript captions and the note "Please return to Mrs. G.D. Smith" on versos, else a Very Good, bright collection. Date of publication based on Tarbox Beals' rubber-stamps on verso of each image, providing her studio address 333 Fourth Avenue in New York, which she occupied from around 1920 to 1926.
Splendid collection of action shots taken at the all-girls Camp Nyoda in Oak Ridge, New Jersey. The camp, originally affiliated with the Camp Fire Girls of America, was founded in 1917 by Lee and Glover Smith. Jessie Tarbox Beals' daughter Nanette (b. 1911) was an early attendee, and while her mother had enjoyed national recognition for her news photographs for nearly two decades, she faced constant financial struggles. It is possible that Nanette's place at the camp was in part subsidized by this series of promotional photographs her mother took for the camp.
The photographs in this collection range across all facets of camp life, including basketweaving (unfortunately dressed as Native Americans), canoeing, fishing, and shooting. There is also a high level of pageantry at play here, with several photographs capturing at least four different performances including tableaux vivant and an elaborate canoe procession. Only two photographs were taken indoors, a view of the dining hall and a group photograph of a performance in which all the girls were, again, dressed as Native Americans, the only exception dressed as a ballerina.
Of particular interest are the photographs of the girls at play, with two action shots of the girls playing basketball on the tennis courts--Tarbox Beals has even managed to capture the moment when the ball goes through the hoop. Notably only two photographs identify the girls by name (none of them Nanette), that of the canoe procession where faces are difficult to make out and that of three girls with boyish haircuts practicing sharpshooting: Dorothy Dodd, Ada Fuller, and Marva Brown. One of the largest photographs, showing two girls triumphantly holding up the fish they have just caught, is sadly uncaptioned.
A former school teacher and lifetime dynamo, Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870-1972) gained national recognition for her gumption in documenting the St. Louis World Fair in 1904 where she was interviewed by the city's newspaper The Focus: "If one is the possessor of health and strength, a good news instinct...a fair photographic outfit, and the ability to hustle, which is the most necessary qualification, one can be a news photographer."
Indeed, an ability to hustle and bodily strength were recurring themes in this photographer's professional biography. Climbing ladders, balancing on top of bookcases, floating in hot air balloons, all were achieved while lugging about Tarbox Beals' equipment of choice: a 10x8 format camera weighing in at fifty pounds. In the world of women in photography Tarbox Beals was a "first" twice over: In 1902 she became the first woman photographer to work for a newspaper, having been signed on by both the Buffalo Courier and the Buffalo Inquirer. She also taught herself to take photographs at night, gaining the reputation as the first women night photographer. She also anticipated Weegee by decades, taking photographs for which news articles were then manufactured. The present collection showcases her continuing "ability to hustle" in order to get her daughter through the expenses of summer camp.
Splendid collection of action shots taken at the all-girls Camp Nyoda in Oak Ridge, New Jersey. The camp, originally affiliated with the Camp Fire Girls of America, was founded in 1917 by Lee and Glover Smith. Jessie Tarbox Beals' daughter Nanette (b. 1911) was an early attendee, and while her mother had enjoyed national recognition for her news photographs for nearly two decades, she faced constant financial struggles. It is possible that Nanette's place at the camp was in part subsidized by this series of promotional photographs her mother took for the camp.
The photographs in this collection range across all facets of camp life, including basketweaving (unfortunately dressed as Native Americans), canoeing, fishing, and shooting. There is also a high level of pageantry at play here, with several photographs capturing at least four different performances including tableaux vivant and an elaborate canoe procession. Only two photographs were taken indoors, a view of the dining hall and a group photograph of a performance in which all the girls were, again, dressed as Native Americans, the only exception dressed as a ballerina.
Of particular interest are the photographs of the girls at play, with two action shots of the girls playing basketball on the tennis courts--Tarbox Beals has even managed to capture the moment when the ball goes through the hoop. Notably only two photographs identify the girls by name (none of them Nanette), that of the canoe procession where faces are difficult to make out and that of three girls with boyish haircuts practicing sharpshooting: Dorothy Dodd, Ada Fuller, and Marva Brown. One of the largest photographs, showing two girls triumphantly holding up the fish they have just caught, is sadly uncaptioned.
A former school teacher and lifetime dynamo, Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870-1972) gained national recognition for her gumption in documenting the St. Louis World Fair in 1904 where she was interviewed by the city's newspaper The Focus: "If one is the possessor of health and strength, a good news instinct...a fair photographic outfit, and the ability to hustle, which is the most necessary qualification, one can be a news photographer."
Indeed, an ability to hustle and bodily strength were recurring themes in this photographer's professional biography. Climbing ladders, balancing on top of bookcases, floating in hot air balloons, all were achieved while lugging about Tarbox Beals' equipment of choice: a 10x8 format camera weighing in at fifty pounds. In the world of women in photography Tarbox Beals was a "first" twice over: In 1902 she became the first woman photographer to work for a newspaper, having been signed on by both the Buffalo Courier and the Buffalo Inquirer. She also taught herself to take photographs at night, gaining the reputation as the first women night photographer. She also anticipated Weegee by decades, taking photographs for which news articles were then manufactured. The present collection showcases her continuing "ability to hustle" in order to get her daughter through the expenses of summer camp.