Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Photograph, Cabinet |
Collection |
Oil Museum of Canada Collection |
Catalog Number |
OMC 2000.013.021 |
Photographer |
Pesha, Louis James |
Studio |
Louis Pesha's Art Studio |
Date |
Aug 1898 |
Description |
Black and white photograph on a grey cabinet card. The studio photo is of a child, John T. Barnes, aged 1 1/2 years, standing on a chair. He is wearing a white knee-length coat, black sailor type hat and black button shoes. The back is stamped with the studio name, Louis Pesha Art Studio, Oil Springs, Ont. |
Provenance |
John was the son of George and Annie Barnes who lived in Oil Springs. He later became the mayor of Sarnia. Photographer, James Louis Pesha was born on August 11, 1868, in Euphemia Township, Lambton County, about two miles north of Shetland and worked on farms in the area for a good portion of his early life. It was not until he was twenty-seven years old (1895) that he learned the photography trade and began to pursue it, in earnest, as a career. During the next six years records indicate that he had photographic studios in Alvinston, Brigden, Inwood and Oil Springs with the bulk of his work consisting of taking 5X7 and 8 X10 portraits. By 1901, the Pesha family had immigrated to Michigan and were living in Marine City, as well as operating a fair-sized photographic studio business. Between 1908 and 1912 it is estimated that Pesha took as many as 10,000 postcard pictures. He photographed extensively throughout Lower Michigan, Southwestern Ontario, Northern Ohio, Niagara Falls, parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma City. His pictures were taken on glass negatives and required the transporting of photographic equipment that was heavy and fragile and yet it is generally thought that he worked alone. On October 1, 1912, Pesha was visiting his boyhood home in Euphemia Township where he died in a automobile accident. |
Print Size |
9.7cm x 13.8cm |
Search Terms |
Boy Louis Pesha's Art Studio Oil Springs Photograph, Cabinet Card |
People |
Barnes, John T. |
Place |
Oil Springs, Ontario |