By Charlie at Pasty Central (Chopper) on Sunday, December 13, 2009 - 09:46 am:
Erik Nordberg provides some notes for today’s Shoebox Memory:
John William Nara was born in Finland in 1874. He later immigrated to the United States and established a photographic studio in Calumet, Michigan, in the heart of America’s most productive copper mining region. In addition to posed studio portraits, J. W. Nara’s lens also captured the people, place, and time he experienced in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Copper mining and industry are an important part of the story, but Nara also captured the Keweenaw’s rural landscape, including local farms, shorelines, lighthouses, and pastoral back roads.
The Michigan Tech Archives will premier a new traveling exhibit about the life and times of Calumet photographer J.W. Nara at a special opening event scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 16, on the first floor of the J.R. Van Pelt and Opie Library at Michigan Technological University. The event is free and open to the public.
The exhibit, funded in part by descendants Robert and Ruth Nara of Bootjack Michigan, works from historical photographs held at the Michigan Tech Archives. Interpretive panels highlight the people, places, and times that J.W. Nara experienced during his lifetime and include material on urban life, farming, and the 1913 Michigan copper miners’ strike. The exhibit is designed as a touring exhibit and will travel to libraries, museums, and schools following its initial installation in Houghton. A small exhibit catalog will be available at no charge and includes three Nara photograph postcards from the collection.
The J.W. Nara exhibit will remain on display at the J.R. Van Pelt and Opie Library through February 7, 2010.
We have featured Mr. Nara’s works through the years here on the Pasty Cam. A few threads come to mind:
July 27, 2001 – Dreamland District of Bootjack
March 30, 2008 – Nara’s Sugar Bush
“Down on the Farm” Pasty Cameo – (Includes some Nara photos)
Edie and I are planning to catch the opening of the Nara exhibit on Wednesday at 11am at the Van Pelt Library at Tech. Hope to see you there.
Have a good week :o)