Digital Exhibits

Toddler and Bushes

An outdoor portrait of a blond toddler, probably a girl aged around 18 months. She is wearing a light dress, dark tights and boots. She is standing between flowers in the foreground and bushes or vines in the background. The girl may be a relative or the child of a friend of William Alonso Clapshaw, the photographer. Clapshaw exposed half of a glass plate negative to create this image. The photograph was probably taken near Gales Creek or Banks in Oregon, possibly in the Hayward area. The other half of the glass plate was used to make a portrait of the Hayward Farm; see image PUA_MS154_007a. 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, 1880-1980

circa 1910-1914

PUA_MS154_007b

Girls

Portraits

Hayward, Oregon

Gelatin silver negatives

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Pacific University Archives