J.A. Palmer Aiken SC -#70 Highland Park Hotel Winter Resort Stereoview c1870

Description: J.A. Palmer Aiken SC -#70 Highland Park Hotel Winter Resort Stereoview c1870 This is a historically significant black americana real photo stereoview. Stereoviews taken by J.A. Palmer are sparse and the condition of this collection is exceptional. We will be listing a total of 44 views, mostly of Aiken SC with some from Georgia, over the next few weeks. Auctions will begin on Thursday evening and end the following Sunday. Provenance: Private collection from Newburyport Massachusetts. About the location/View: Highland Park HotelEarly photograph of Highland Park hotel, prior to the addition of the fence (seen in view 263)The Highland Park Hotel, Aiken’s first grand hotel, was situated on the western end of Park Avenue on the plateau overlooking what is now the Aiken Golf Club. It was constructed in 1869 – 1870. In 1874 its capacity was doubled to 300 guests with an addition on the left side.The hotel was constructed at a time when Aiken was considered a health resort because of its pine-scented air, mild climate, and sandy soil. Over the years the hotel advertised large rooms with sunny exposure, marble-top walnut furniture, and rooms lit with rosin gas and warmed with open fireplaces. All rooms had electric bells. Hot and cold baths were available on each floor, and the halls and dining room were heated with steam. The hotel also boasted a men’s billiard room, a ladies’ billiard room, and a bowling alley. There was even a hydraulic passenger elevator.The Highland Park Hotel grounds consisted of 400 acres of pine forest featuring walking and riding trails and drives, with a glass-enclosed pavilion in the middle of the acreage. There were also tennis and croquet courts and stables. This was a first-class hotel and it was open each year from November to the beginning of June.In 1898 a fire destroyed the hotel; fortunately no one died in the blaze. In 1912 a group of Aiken businessmen formed the Real Estate and Fidelity Company to develop a resort hotel for winter guests at the same location. Several of the investors in the new Highland Park Hotel issued stock to build a golf course as an amenity to the hotel. The golf course lives on today as the Aiken Golf Club. The hotel struggled during the Depression, and there was another fire in 1940. The hotel was torn down shortly thereafter, but the hotel’s laundry facility is now the club house for the Aiken Golf Club.At the corner of Highland Park Terrace and Highland Park Drive you will find an official State of South Carolina marker about the hotel; it was erected by the Aiken County Historical Society in 2009. (Palmetto Bella 1/17/2017) About The Photographer:James A. (J.A.) Palmer specialized in photographs of the African-American community. He took family and personal portraits as well as images of their homes and scenes from cotton fields and other locations where they worked. Palmer's stereographs of the lives of African-Americans at work provide important information about how both white South Carolinians and African-Americans adjusted to the new reality. In 1875, he advertised this collection as illustrative of "Southern plantation life" in The Philadelphia Photographer (March 1875 pg 76) See ad below....In 1866, Palmer moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he worked as a photographer. He moved to Aiken in 1870. He was a prolific photographer at a time when the technology was still in its infancy. Palmer's continuous documentation of the lives of African-Americans before and during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877) placed him in a rarefied company.At that time, African Americans who were freed from slavery due to the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) or who had been soldiers fighting for their freedom during the Civil War tried to assimilate into a society that did not welcome them. Schools and churches were established to provide a means to gain education by people of all ages and establish places of worship. During this period, citizenship of African-Americans was to be resolved, but they had the right to vote, purchase property, and gain employment.Most photographers at that time were uninterested in photographing African-Americans for a variety of financial and social reasons. Some specifically advertised their services as white only or limited the times they could be seen. Palmer's stereographs illustrated society's bias. Never once in all his stereographs do African-Americans share a physical space with white people. Some of his customers were also invariably interested in his images as way to witness people they thought to be different from them. In 1888, Ezekiel Jeremy Charles Wood, one of his customers, "bought a set to send to the Smithsonian Institute" to call attention to the "strange customs of our race."While documenting scenes from black communities, Palmer mostly stayed away from any kind of political commentary. He gave his images simple and descriptive titles. However, there were also times in his career when he used his platform to champion the political rights of African-Americans, or, at the very least, to draw sympathy for them. While he lived in Aiken, Palmer took advantage of its status as a winter resort and produced images of everything from the exteriors and interiors of churches to homes, public buildings, railroads and textile mills. During the 1880s, he also took pictures of Augusta, Georgia and some parts of Florida. In 1889, he contributed sixty-three photographs to illustrate Aiken, South Carolina as a Health and Pleasure Resort.He worked as a photographer until his death in 1896. Please See our other views. We do combine shipping.Keyword Search:Stereo ViewStereoscopeStereographStereoscopio Listing and template services provided by inkFrog

Price: 250 USD

Location: Bolton, Massachusetts

End Time: 2024-10-17T13:00:18.000Z

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