Rubble photos document Chadron history

From 1 – 3 p.m. on Sunday, the Mari Sandoz Center saw nearly 200 people during the Photos from the Rubble reception, an event that showcasing the early 20th century photography of Chadron’s Ray and Faye Graves.

The reception kicked off with an introduction by Laure Sinn, school of Business, Mathematics, Science and Rangeland Program Coordinator. Noting that this exhibit has been “a hundred years in the making,” Sinn thanked the many volunteers and community members who, over the years, have devoted their time and resources into making the reception a reality.

The photography featured in the exhibit ranges from 1906 to 1940. Several prints, including one of the last known photographs of Chief Red Cloud, and an image of President Theodore Roosevelt campaigning in 1912 were on display. Holly Counts, a volunteer and 2007 CSC alumna, has worked extensively on the project and said that this was the first time many non-portrait photographs have been featured.

“They did an exhibit in 2004, which [Allen] Shepherd and [Philip] Krebel did that, and that was mainly portraits. So this is the first time that more of the variety of their work has been shown,” Counts said.

Ray and Faye Graves operated their photography studio from 1909 through the early 1940s. According to former student intern Frank Snocker, Ray Graves was trained by Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York, prior to coming to Chadron. After seeing Faye’s potential, Ray trained Faye and the pair worked together until Ray’s death in 1919 from the Spanish flu epidemic.

After taking a couple years off following Ray’s death, Faye resumed photography and continued to run the studio until her retirement in 1940. The Graves Studio plates weren’t found until 1973 after a bulldozer demolishing a building at 250 Main Street cleared a false wall and revealed the plates. Over the years, several student interns, professors and volunteers have worked on digitizing and preserving the recovered 1,100 plates, a small fraction of original 10,000 plates that were stored in the cabinet behind the false wall. 9,000 plates were accidentally destroyed in the 1973 demolition.

The reception also featured period music performed by Department of Music instructor Bobby Pace and CSC students as well a theme photography opportunity by reception assistant Daniel Binkard. In it, attendees could pose and have their picture taken by long-exposure, similar to the technique Ray and Faye Graves would have used in their dry plate photography.

For some, the exhibit serves as a personal touchstone for years gone by. Betty Reading, whose baby pictures and grade school pictures are featured in the exhibit, felt as if she was in the limelight.

“I feel like a celebrity, but I didn’t ask for it!” Reading said.

For others like Snocker, the exhibit reveals not only “the entire history of Chadron State College,” but also the “township” of the high plains region and the history behind it.

“What the Society is sitting on, in my own opinion,” Snocker said, “is a gold mine.”

The Graves exhibit runs from Sunday, Jan. 13 until Friday, March 29 in the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center. Center hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. – noon, and 1 – 4 p.m., and Friday, 10 a.m. – noon.