John Becker photograph collection, ca. 1910-1924

 

Descriptive Inventory for the Collection at Chicago Historical Society, Research Center.

 

 

Please address questions to:

Chicago History Museum, Research Center

1601 North Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60614-6038

Web-site: http://www.chicagohistory.org/Research

 

© Copyright 2014, Chicago Historical Society, 1601 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60614-6038

 

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Title:  John Becker photograph collection, ca. 1910-1924

 

Storage:  Box Lot (3 11 x 14 in. boxes; 46 4 x 5 in. negative boxes, 22 5 x 7 in. negative boxes--GN0118-0185)

 

Accession number:  1983.0127

 

Restriction: To consult the glass negatives in this collection in the Research Center it is necessary to make an advance appointment (email: Research@chicagohistory.org ).

 

This descriptive inventory includes:

1 Biographical sketch

2 Description of the collection

3 Container list for negatives

 

Biographical Sketch

John Becker earned his living as a carpenter and handyman, but he was also an accomplished photographer who spent many hours documenting the people who lived in his neighborhood in South Chicago during the 1910's and 1920's.  There is no indication of when he first started taking pictures or when he stopped.  It would be hasty to assume that the negatives in this collection constitute the whole of his work.  It is more likely that other negatives were destroyed or lost during his lifetime or following his death in 1957.

 

Becker's photographic skills were probably self-taught.  He worked with view cameras capable of producing 4 x 5 and 5 x 7 inch glass plate negatives, carefully recording in notebooks his negative numbers, exposure times, and brief and often cryptic subject identifications.  The attention paid to such meticulous record keeping suggests that he was serious about his photography.  He advertised his services to the amateur photographer, for whom he offered to provide duplicates, developing, copying, and enlarging for the "lowest prices.”

 

Born in Hobart, Indiana on December 15, 1879, Becker's parents were Hilair and Annie (Pemmer) Becker.  His family moved to Chicago when he and his sister Clara were children.  A bachelor, he spent his entire adult life living in the family residence at 8925 Escanaba Avenue where he operated both his carpentry and photography businesses.

 

In addition to his interest in photography, Becker maintained a life long hobby of constructing furniture from discarded sewing spools.  Desks, hope chests, cuckoo clocks, radios, and even a miniature spool camera were all made by Becker in his free time.  A collection of this spool furniture was donated to the Chicago Historical Society by Becker's relatives after his death.  Unfortunately, the furniture became infested with insects and was de-accessioned and destroyed in 1972.  All that remains are a small group of photographs made by Becker of these objects. 

 

John Becker died on November 7, 1957 at the age of 78.  Following his wishes, his collection of glass plate negatives and a small number of original photographs were donated to the Society. 

 

Description of the Collection:

The John Becker Collection consists of approximately 1,360 4 x 5 and 5 x 7 inch glass plate negatives and 153 original photographs, 45 postcards, and 27 stereoviews.  The strength of these images lies in their ability to depict everyday life as lived by ordinary people, photographed in their own environments.  There are no candid poses here.  Becker's subjects are always aware of the presence of the camera.  They gaze seriously into its lens and concentrate on the formality of the moment.  Yet unlike studio portraits, these photographs show us people together with objects that were meaningful to them.  The work place is explored as a backdrop for portraits and by photographing people within the context of their jobs, Becker documents the kinds of things they did to earn a living.  The pride associated with owning an automobile, truck, or motorcycle is evident in many photographs.  Leisure activities such as picnicking in the park, boating, playing tennis, and general partying were favorite subjects for Becker's camera and are well represented in the collection.  Street scenes illustrate the mix of residential and commercial architecture and the relationship of these buildings to the street and to each other. Neighborhood events of strictly local interest and fleeting importance such as parades, fires, funerals,  snowstorms, or moving a building to a new address were all considered worthy of documentation by Becker.  Also included is a small, richly detailed series of images taken of an unidentified farm (most likely in Indiana or Wisconsin) that depicts daily activities of farm life. 

 

The 4 x 5 inch negatives in this collection retain the original order assigned by Becker.  They are organized by negative numbers that correspond to numbers written in two inventory log books kept by the photographer.  This number is located in the upper left corner of the negative sleeve. At the time of acquisition, negatives were stored in dirty, acidic envelopes (often more than one negative per sleeve) and a negative number and subject identification were written on most envelopes.  However, because of Becker's habit of putting more than one negative in an envelope yet assigning only one number to the envelope, it is often difficult to determine which negative the subject identification refers to.  Thus the chances for mis-identification are great.  When the negatives were re-sleeved in archival envelopes, the negatives numbers and descriptive information were transcribed onto the new envelopes.  But when two or more negatives with the same negative number were found in one envelope, descriptive information was transferred only onto the first envelope in the sequence.

 

All of the 5 x 7 inch negatives and some 4 x 5 inch negatives in this collection were organized by Becker according to box number.  They were not given individual negative numbers, nor were they captioned.  For this reason, it is necessary to consult the inventory notebooks for the subjects of these negatives. 

 

Becker's first inventory notebook contains information for negatives numbered 1-448.  These negatives are not part of the collection.  The second inventory notebook contains information for negatives numbered 449-1,000.  It also contains information for the 5 x 7 inch boxes labeled 1-15 (boxes 9, 11, 14, and 15 were not part of the donation).  The numbering sequence for the collection begins with negative number 660.

 

The collection also includes a small assortment of original photographs, stereoviews, and postcards made by Becker as well as several photograph processing manuals.  A selection of 138 negatives was printed by the Chicago Historical Society and file prints have been placed in the Master Vertical Files.  A duplicate set of prints is stored together as a lot.

 

Inventory by:  Maureen O'Brien Will, July 1983

 

Container List

Box Number    Negative Number

1                      660-669

2                      670-678

3                      679-687

4                      688-697

5                      698-706

6                      708-718

7                      719-727

8                      728-737

9                      738-746

10                    747-753

11                    760-767

12                    768-776

13                    777-783

14                    784-792

15                    793-800

16                    804-809

17                    810-814, 823

18                    824-827-B

19                    828-833-A

20                    840-845

21                    846-857

22                    858-861

23                    862-867

24                    868-872

25                    873-876

26                    877-881-B

27                    882-A - 884-B

28                    885-A - 891-B

29                    889-A - 891-B

30                    892-A - 895

31                    896-A - 900

32                    901-906

33                    907-909, 1000

34                    221 (See sheet in box for identification)

35                    Bessemer Park

36                    Bessemer Park

37                    Spring Brook Stock Farm, So. Chicago Laundry Company Trucks, Misc. portraits

38                    Funeral of 1909 Crib Fire Victims

39                    Farm scenes, saloon, unidentified

40                    Unidentified farm scenes, church, switch­board operator

41                    Unidentified portraits, automobiles

42                    Unidentified portraits, automobiles

43                    Unidentified portraits

44                    Unidentified misc.

45                    "Frank Becker" unidentified

46                    Unidentified "Box 33"

47                    755-759 Becker's Box "1"

48                    833-839 Becker's box "3"

49                    847-852 Becker's box "4"

50                    Becker's box "5", See inventory

51                    Becker's box "6", See inventory

52                    Becker's box "7", see inventory

53                    Becker's box "8", see inventory

54                    Becker's box "8", see inventory

55                    Becker's box "8", see inventory

56                    Becker's box "10", see inventory

57                    Becker's box "10", see inventory

58                    Becker's box "10", see inventory

59                    Becker's box "12", see inventory

60                    Becker's box "12", see inventory

61                    Becker's box "12", see inventory

62                    Becker's box "13-B", see inventory

63                    Unidentified: house moving, autos, beer wagon, funeral, townscapes

64                    Funeral 1912, snow scenes 1916-1918

65                    Recamier girls 1916, unidentified portraits

66                    Unidentified portraits

67                    Unidentified portraits

68                    Unidentified portraits, Bessemer Park, parade

 

Photographs

26 unidentified photographs

21 homemade stereo cards

9 photographs taken with spool camera

8 photographs of Becker

8 miscellaneous photographs

6 stereo cards of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (not by Becker)

45 postcards

miscellaneous photography manuals

Master photographs made from selected glass negatives