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The Lumber Heritage Region has acquired this
exhibit from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
in order to make it available to the people of the Region.
"Wood
on Glass,” was an exhibit on display at the State Museum of
Pennsylvania in the Spring of 2011, consists of photographs by
little known and long forgotten itinerant photographer William
T. Clarke (1859-1930), a Rochester, NY native who chronicled the
lumber industry and its dramatic impact on north central
Pennsylvania during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Clarke’s evocative legacy is showcased in “Wood on
Glass” with custom prints made from glass plate negatives, most
now housed at the Pennsylvania State Archives and others
in private hands.
Clarke’s images graphically
illustrate the epic transformation of the Commonwealth’s forests
and ways of life between ca. 1890 and 1917 in Potter, McKean and
Clinton Counties.
Produced in-house by The
State Museum, the “Wood on Glass” exhibit was co-curated by
Archivist Linda Ries with photo historians Ronald E. Ostman and
Harry Littell who served as Scholars-in-Residence at the State
Archives in 2005 to document Clarke’s photography. Since
discovering a cache of Clarke’s original glass plate negatives
in upstate New York, Ostman and Littell – whose work on Clarke
has been featured in the magazine Smithsonian – have
collaborated to draw attention to the photographer’s collections
and are authoring a book to interpret the photographer’s vast
visual legacy.
The Lumber Heritage Region
of Pennsylvania has purchased the exhibit from PHMC and plans to
exhibit it around the 15 counties over the next couple of years.
The LHR plans to tour the
exhibit around the region over the next several years. It is
currently on display at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum and is
scheduled to be at the Sinnemahoning Wildlife Center over winter
and at the Punxsutawney Historical Society in time for Ground
Hog Day Festivities.
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