The Wisconsin Project: Found: Evening Scene Near Eagle River, WI

2.11.12

Found: Evening Scene Near Eagle River, WI

Found: Evening Scene Near Eagle River, Wisc. copyright 1909 by A.J. Kingsbury, Antigo, Wisconsin
postmarked July 23, 1910. Printed on verso: "This post card is a real photograph"

The photographer, Arthur J. Kingsbury (1876-1956), from Antigo, Wisconsin photographed scenes around northern Wisconsin in the early part of the 20th century. A "classy new book" called Langlade County by Joe Hermolin includes his postcard photographs and we could find it only on eBay. According to researchers, Kingsbury photographed exclusively in the real photo post card format and operated a Kodak store for decades. His photographic subjects included "local Indians" (mainly members of the Menominee and Ojibwa tribes), logging camps, the railroad, and growing tourism industry. A fire destroyed his studio in 1967 along with 60 years of photographs yet the nearby county historical society is working to preserve and disseminate his work.

Photographer Arthur J. Kingsbury of Antigo, Wisconsin travelled extensively
in northern Wisconsin and Michigan to photograph everyday using
the real photo post card format, circa 1900

Kingsbury with Big Pat, Big George Sky and Na Wa Kwe of Lac du Flambeau
and their wigwams circa 1910

5 comments:

Anonymous01:42
Great job on a great idea. Thanks. - Tom Pederson, Green Bay, WI USA
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Emily Pfotenhauer, Wisconsin Heritage Online11:40
This is a fabulous project and I was excited to see that you highlighted some images from A. J. Kingsbury. I had the opportunity to work with Joe Hermolin and the Langlade County Historical Society on a project to digitize photos and postcards from this collection, some of which are now online here: http://content.mpl.org/langlade Joe and students from the Tribal Libraries, Archives and Museums course at UW-Madison's library school interviewed Menominee and Ojibwe tribal historic preservation officers to help identify some of the individuals in the photos. For example, the three men above are Big Pat, Big George Sky and Na Wa Kwe of Lac du Flambeau, WI.
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johnie13:31
We have posted the names on the photograph on our blog. Very happy to hear efforts are underway to catalog and give meaning to Kingsbury's work. Please feel free to post other information you'd like to get out there here!
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Unknown05:27
He was my great grandfather
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Unknown05:28
He was my great grandfather
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THE WISCONSIN PROJECT

Our research-driven Wisconsin Project contemplates the rooted-ness and state-of-mind resulting from inhabiting a single place, our native Wisconsin, for a long time. Through critiquing postcard views both made and found, we learn a great deal about past and present Wisconsin. We began making postcard views of the places immediately around our studio and on our drives around Wisconsin in about 2008. We use the vintage postcard film format and print the cards in palladium and cyanotype. By communicating details of a specific place, seeming to register only marginally on the national radar, the project seeks to bring audiences into a Wisconsin mental space. Some in the art world would argue that the Midwest, particularly Wisconsin, makes for banal “fly over” subject matter. Our project challenges that by finding meaning in the ordinary and inviting audiences to examine, dialog, and reflect on the particular emotional quality of the idiosyncrasies of place and the perceptions of those both inside and outside of it. Sometimes distant memories are involved and a longing for a time now gone. Wisconsin’s glacier inflected landscape and proximity to the Great Lakes creates an exotic arena for living that informs our project. The life cycle plays out and rural and urban ruins serve as monuments to existences as people, places, and ideas surface then vanish. Ultimately, we aim to grapple with complex perceptions of Wisconsin ranging from nostalgic, romantic, and idealized--as depicted on myriad real photo postcard and standard tourist postcards--to mysterious, dark, and Gothic as conveyed in works of art and literature such as Michael Lesy's "Wisconsin Death Trip" book and Werner Herzog's "Stroszek" film. The project culminated in a residency with workshops and community collaborations and the installation "We Go From Where We Know" at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center 10.13.2013-3.7.2014 and later the Harvestore Bandshell for Fermentation Fest in 10.2014. The blog continues the exploration of postcards.