Clapshaw Glass Plate Negatives

Farmhouse with Family

A man, a woman and a boy stand in front of a farmhouse near Forest Grove, Oregon circa 1910-1914. The child, perhaps around 5 years old, is wearing a sailor-style outfit and holding what may be a baseball bat. The woman appears to be older (possibly the grandmother of the boy), and is wearing a nice but somewhat outdated dress. The man is wearing overalls and a straw hat. Their two-story house has a screen door on the second floor that leads directly onto the porch roof. Fruit trees and an outbuilding are in the background on the left. The photographer, William Alonso Clapshaw, exposed half of a glass plate negative to create this image. The other half of the glass plate was used to make another photograph of a barn that may have been on the same property; see image PUA_MS154_027b. Flaws in the photograph are due to dust and deterioration of the emulsion layer on the negative.

This is one image from a set of glass plate negatives created by William Alonso Clapshaw. Clapshaw was a clerk and shopkeeper who lived near Forest Grove, Oregon for most of his life. He was born in 1880, probably at the family's home in the Hillside neighborhood of Forest Grove, on what is now Clapshaw Hill Road east of Gales Creek. Around 1910-1914, William took an interest in photography and created a set of glass plate negatives documenting scenes near his family's lands as well as images of himself, his friends and family members. He most likely used a silver gelatin dry plate process. The photographs were donated to the Pacific University Archives in 2023.

Clapshaw, William Alonso, 1880-2004

circa 1910-1914

PUA_MS154_027a

Farms--Oregon

Houses

Photography of families

Forest Grove, Oregon

Gelatin silver negatives

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Pacific University Archives