CHS Class of 1965 donates funds to museum
for new negative scanner
Kathy White (left), director of the Barry County Museum, and Dr. Chip Kammerlohr (right) stand in front of shelves of wooden file boxes containing part of the negatives of Fields Photo Archives, housed in a designated room at the museum.
February 10, 2021
Sheila Harris
The Barry County Museum is the recipient of a recent donation from the Cassville High School graduating class of 1965 which allowed them to purchase a new negative scanner.
According to museum director, Kathy White, the most pressing purpose for the new scanner is to digitize and preserve the images on nearly one million negatives from Fields’ Photo Archives. The collection of negatives is now housed in the Barry County Museum.
“The negatives are in deteriorating condition, though,” White said. “Our goal is to get all of them scanned while they are still intact.”
White said, over time, the older negatives scratch the surface of the scanner, which was the case with the one they had been using.
When Louise Lucas Horner, a class member of the CHS class of 1965, called to inquire about a particular negative in the Fields Archives and learned that a new scanner was needed, she set the wheels in motion to make it happen. An email was sent out to all remaining 1965 alumni - who hold annual reunions in the museum - and enough money was collected to purchase the new scanner.
Dr. Chip Kammerlohr, of Cassville, a member of the class of 1965, presented the money for the scanner to the museum on behalf of the class.
White says, while many negatives have been scanned - enough to be catalogued in about 25 binders - they have many more to go.
The negatives stored in the Fields Photo Archives represent photos dating back as far as 1933, when roving photographers Pa and Ma Fields first arrived in Cassville pulling a homemade camper trailer. They set up what they supposed might be a temporary photography studio on the north side of the square over what was then “Floyd Barber’s Sanitary Food Market.”
When the demand for their photos continued to be strong in Cassville, Ma and Pa Fields decided to make it their permanent home. In 1952, their son, Max Fields, and his wife, Margie, joined them in the operation of their studio, which had changed locations within Cassville many times over the years.
While the Fields photographers have since passed (including Max Fields, in 2012) the negatives of their photos remain: some 3,900 pounds of them, which include over half a million individual negatives stored in 108,000 envelopes, according to a Fields’ Photo history written by Max Fields in 2004.
After closing up his own photography studio in 1995, Max Fields transferred all of the filed negatives from Fields’ Photo to the garage of his home. There they remained until 2004, when Fields Photo Archives was established by Jerry Watley, of Cassville, after Fields expressed an interest in making the photo negatives available to the public.
The archives were first established in a store front in Show-Me Plaza, then later moved to the Barry County Museum after their new building was finished in 2007.
Kathy White says people might be surprised to discover what photos might be available pertaining to their families.
“People had photos taken of everything,” she said, “including families, pets and weddings.”
White said, too, that funeral photos were popular in past eras, so many casket photos of deceased family members were taken.
White says it is especially rewarding to be able to provide photo to families whose homes have been destroyed in a fire, as was the case with the family photos of Herschel and Della Stehlik, of Cassville.
Another notable experience, according to White, was when they were able to find the wedding photo of Don and Myra Brock, of Shell Knob.
“The Brocks didn’t have the money to pay for prints when they got married in 1958,” White said. “Fifty years later, their kids threw an anniversary party for them and asked us if we still had the negatives of the wedding photos Max Fields had taken. We did have them, so the Brocks received prints of their wedding photos 50 years after their wedding.”
Negatives stored at the museum are indexed based on the name of the person who ordered the photos, not necessarily by the names of the people in the photos, White said.
Information regarding the Fields Archives can be found on the Barry County Museum website at www.barrycomuseum.org/pages/field.
Museum visitors may view up to ten negatives, per visit, during regular museum hours, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The museum is located at 15858 State Hwy. 76, Cassville.
Sheila Harris
The Barry County Museum is the recipient of a recent donation from the Cassville High School graduating class of 1965 which allowed them to purchase a new negative scanner.
According to museum director, Kathy White, the most pressing purpose for the new scanner is to digitize and preserve the images on nearly one million negatives from Fields’ Photo Archives. The collection of negatives is now housed in the Barry County Museum.
“The negatives are in deteriorating condition, though,” White said. “Our goal is to get all of them scanned while they are still intact.”
White said, over time, the older negatives scratch the surface of the scanner, which was the case with the one they had been using.
When Louise Lucas Horner, a class member of the CHS class of 1965, called to inquire about a particular negative in the Fields Archives and learned that a new scanner was needed, she set the wheels in motion to make it happen. An email was sent out to all remaining 1965 alumni - who hold annual reunions in the museum - and enough money was collected to purchase the new scanner.
Dr. Chip Kammerlohr, of Cassville, a member of the class of 1965, presented the money for the scanner to the museum on behalf of the class.
White says, while many negatives have been scanned - enough to be catalogued in about 25 binders - they have many more to go.
The negatives stored in the Fields Photo Archives represent photos dating back as far as 1933, when roving photographers Pa and Ma Fields first arrived in Cassville pulling a homemade camper trailer. They set up what they supposed might be a temporary photography studio on the north side of the square over what was then “Floyd Barber’s Sanitary Food Market.”
When the demand for their photos continued to be strong in Cassville, Ma and Pa Fields decided to make it their permanent home. In 1952, their son, Max Fields, and his wife, Margie, joined them in the operation of their studio, which had changed locations within Cassville many times over the years.
While the Fields photographers have since passed (including Max Fields, in 2012) the negatives of their photos remain: some 3,900 pounds of them, which include over half a million individual negatives stored in 108,000 envelopes, according to a Fields’ Photo history written by Max Fields in 2004.
After closing up his own photography studio in 1995, Max Fields transferred all of the filed negatives from Fields’ Photo to the garage of his home. There they remained until 2004, when Fields Photo Archives was established by Jerry Watley, of Cassville, after Fields expressed an interest in making the photo negatives available to the public.
The archives were first established in a store front in Show-Me Plaza, then later moved to the Barry County Museum after their new building was finished in 2007.
Kathy White says people might be surprised to discover what photos might be available pertaining to their families.
“People had photos taken of everything,” she said, “including families, pets and weddings.”
White said, too, that funeral photos were popular in past eras, so many casket photos of deceased family members were taken.
White says it is especially rewarding to be able to provide photo to families whose homes have been destroyed in a fire, as was the case with the family photos of Herschel and Della Stehlik, of Cassville.
Another notable experience, according to White, was when they were able to find the wedding photo of Don and Myra Brock, of Shell Knob.
“The Brocks didn’t have the money to pay for prints when they got married in 1958,” White said. “Fifty years later, their kids threw an anniversary party for them and asked us if we still had the negatives of the wedding photos Max Fields had taken. We did have them, so the Brocks received prints of their wedding photos 50 years after their wedding.”
Negatives stored at the museum are indexed based on the name of the person who ordered the photos, not necessarily by the names of the people in the photos, White said.
Information regarding the Fields Archives can be found on the Barry County Museum website at www.barrycomuseum.org/pages/field.
Museum visitors may view up to ten negatives, per visit, during regular museum hours, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The museum is located at 15858 State Hwy. 76, Cassville.
