The adventures and various works of a photographer, road tripper, former patron of the local arts, aspiring app developer, and late night coffee drinker and conversationalist.
These are the primary online resources I've utilized in researching my historical posts. Note that the Ghosts of DFW Music History series makes use of various other online and human sources in addition to these, including personal interviews, social media pages, and articles from other publications. But for my other posts, these are the most [fruitful/producing results] sources I have regularly consulted:
For the Dallas Public Library-based archives, you'll need an account based on your Dallas Library card. Information on how to obtain this access can be found HERE. As far as printed materials go, the following are also good resources:
Dallas: The Deciding Years - A Historical Portrait by A.C. Greene, published 1973 by The Encino Press
Dallas Yesterday by Sam Acheson, edited by Lee Milazzo, published 1977 by Southern Methodist University Press
Dallas Rediscovered: A Photographic Chronicle of Urban Expansion 1870-1925 by William L. McDonald, published 1979 by The Dallas Historical Society
This Used to Be Dallas by Harry Hall, published 2020 by Reedy Press
And if social media is your thing (it isn't for me, but I do sometimes utilize it as a necessary evil for my research), here are some active groups on Facebook that are worth a look:
With 2025 now underway, I am laying out my plans for the new year. Alongside the usual new year's resolutions and the incentives to myself to get healthier, I'm also putting some thought into what blog and other personal projects I'd like to see realized over the coming months. Toward this end, I've compiled the following list of "must have" and "would be nice" items that will help bring those plans and ideas to fruition. If you (or anyone you know) are aware of a source for any of the following items, or have some examples that you are willing to donate, potentially sell, or just allow the use of for various blog features and/or research projects, please reach out to me:
Original, non-commercial (i.e., amateur) photo prints, snapshots, negatives, and slides of the Dallas-Fort Worth area from the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly those showing buildings, streets, and important events (but not parades). This includes amateur real photo postcards, and especially includes amateur photos from local band performances taken prior to the advent of digital cameras.
Original flyers for local shows at area clubs and music venues from the 1990s and earlier, or originally made (i.e., not taken off the internet) high quality images of them
Original memorabilia of any kind related to businesses located on or along Poydras Street in Dallas, from any time period, especially photos, postcards, business cards, advertisements, and physical promotional items (advertising handouts, branded items and other such artifacts) (high priority)
Cabinet cards and CDVs produced in the Dallas-Fort Worth area from 1870 through 1900
Vintage, original 8mm films of sites in the DFW area (amateur films, not commercial, and not films of private events such as weddings and birthday parties unless they include notable individuals)
Photos of interracial couples predating Loving vs. Virginia (i.e., before 1967), including slides
Original music-related 'zines from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, from any time period
Route 66-related slides and photos, amateur only (not commercially produced)
Any "found footage" style audio and video recordings related to DFW happenings, on any format I can play (cassette, 1/4 inch reel-to-reel, home-recorded 8 track cartridges, microcassettes, VHS/VHS-C, Video8, Hi8, miniDV, DVD-R and other recordable DVD media)
When it comes to cabinet cards, photos of places outside the DFW metroplex, and the pre-Loving photos, I am looking to acquire originals, but in all the other instances, I only need permission to reproduce materials and don't need to actually acquire originals as long as a good quality copy can be provided. This is particularly the case for the various historical research projects that concern local history or the DFW music scene in particular.
Plans for 2025 include finishing up the Ghosts of DFW Music History blog series, some historical posts concerning Dallas history, completing my Road Trips and Live Performance Photography photo galleries, a few recipe and cooking-related posts, and possibly some photography-related experiments and/or videos. And of course, whatever else I may feel like doing at any given time.
Dallas is home to a healthy community of photographers and photography studios in the digital era. While the widespread prevalence of easy, convenient cameras in everyone's mobile device makes everyday photography easier than ever, there is still a niche carved out for professional work when it comes to memorializing important events or, just as importantly, people. This was no less the case in the earlier days of photography, in the days before Kodak and the Brownie camera made picture taking easily accessible to the masses. The portrait studios that operated in the late nineteenth century captured images on plates of glass and produced printed vanity photos, or "cabinet cards," by the dozen for those seeking to memorialize their own likenesses, or those of their family members or families. But while these studios helped create a valuable record of many early communities, their own legacies have so often been erased by over a century of urban development, with little to no evidence left to recall their one-time locations near city centers. In this post, we're going to go on a sort of "walking tour" of several such locations in the city of Dallas, and take a look at the stories behind seven early Dallas photography studios.
The tour area
