George Barker (photographer) explained

George Barker (17 July 1844 – 27 November 1894) was a Canadian-American photographer best known for his photographs of Niagara Falls.

Life

Barker was born in London, Canada West in 1844.^[1] He first studied landscape painting,^[2] switching to photography following a financial setback. He began his photography training with the Western-Canadian photographer James Egan.^[3] At the age of 18, he had opened his own studio in London.

Photography career

Niagara Falls

In July 1862, he made his first trip to Niagara Falls, New York, where he found a job working for Platt D. Babbitt.^{[4] [5]} By the late 1860s, he had studios in both London and Niagara Falls, with the Niagara studio called Barker's Stereoscopic View Manufactory and Photograph Rooms,^[6] and had become known nationwide for his large-format (up to 18×) and stereographic prints of the falls.^[7] In 1866, he won a gold medal for landscape photography at the convention for the Photographers Association of America, held in Saint Louis.^[4]

Barker's Niagara studio was destroyed by fire on February 7, 1870,^[8] but his negatives survived.^[5]

Florida

Barker was one of the earliest photographers to visit the state of Florida. At the time, photography in Florida was challenging, as much of the state remained undeveloped, which meant photographers needed to carry their bulky equipment through the state's wetlands and subtropical jungles, as well as deal with delicate film in hot and humid conditions. Barker spent nearly four years (on and off), from 1886 to 1890, documenting much of northern and central Florida.^[9]

Disasters

In addition to his well-known landscape photographs, Barker traveled the United States, documenting natural disasters such as the Louisville Tornado of 1890^[10] and the 1889 Johnstown flood.

Death

When he died in 1894 of Bright's disease,^[11] he was described as "the eminent photographer of Niagara Falls".

Collections

Upon his death, his works were acquired by Underwood & Underwood of Washington, D.C.^[5]

Additional works are included in the permanent collections of:

• the Library of Congress,^[12]
• The J Paul Getty Museum, and^[13]
• the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,^[14]
• the National Galleries of Scotland,^[15]
• the Art Institute of Chicago,^[16]
• the Art Gallery of Ontario,^[17]
• the National Gallery of Art,^[2]
• the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and ^[18]
• the Smithsonian American Art Museum.^[19]

Notes and References

1. Book: Martha A. Sandweiss. Alan Trachtenberg. Amon Carter Museum of Western Art. Photography in nineteenth-century America. 1991. Amon Carter Museum. 978-0-8109-3659-1.
2. Web site: Artist Info.
3. Book: Douglas Heil. The Art of Stereography: Rediscovering Vintage Three-Dimensional Images. 19 January 2017. McFarland. 978-1-4766-2724-3. 262–.
4. Book: Samuel T. Wiley. Winfield Scott Garner. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York. 1892. Gresham Publishing Company. 180–.
5. Book: Hannavy, John. Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. 4 January 2013. 1. 2007-10-15. CRC Press. 9780415972352. 113–14.
6. Web site: Niagara Falls Reporter Local History. niagarafallsreporter.com.
7. Book: Eisenstadt. Peter R.. Moss. Laura-Eve. The Encyclopedia Of New York State. 4 January 2013. 2005-06-01. Syracuse University Press. 9780815608080. 1201.
8. Book: Stereo World. 1990. National Stereoscopic Association.
9. Book: Hunt, Bruce. Florida Then & Now. 4 January 2013. 2007-09-15. Big Earth Publishing. 9781565795860. 4.
10. https://nyx.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt7v6w969x17 Finding aid
11. Book: Photographic Times and American Photographer. 1894. Scovill Manufacturing Company. 375–.
12. Web site: Search Results: "Barker, George, 1844-1894". Library of Congress.
13. Web site: George Barker (American, 1844 - 1894) (Getty Museum). The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles.
14. Web site: George Barker | Niagara Falls. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 9 November 2023.
15. Web site: George Barker.
16. Web site: Sunset, Horseshoe Fall - Niagara.
17. Web site: George Barker, Niagara Falls | AGO Art Gallery of Ontario.
18. Web site: Search the Collection - The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. www.mfah.org.
19. Web site: George Barker. Smithsonian American Art Museum.