Preserving Our Vanishing past: The Howard D. Beach Photography Studio Glass Plate Negative Collection

The Howard D. Beach Photography Studio glass plate negative collection presents an unprecedented opportunity to preserve, research, and curate over 50,000 glass plate negatives that document Buffalo's most prominent residents, visitors, and places during the city's Golden Era (1880-1940). The collection, owned by the Buffalo History Museum, was salvaged through a joint effort with SUNY Buffalo State's Museum Studies Program. It comes from the only extant late 19th-early 20th c. commercial photography studio in the City of Buffalo which continuously operated for over 70 years (1880-1954). Though environmentally challenged due to decades of storage in the studio's damp basement, the collection is now stable and amenable to preservation. SUNY Buffalo State Research Foundation funding supported the joint efforts of the Buffalo State Museum Studies Program Director and the Buffalo History Museum to stabilize, organize, and prepare a preliminary condition evaluation of the collection. The project has presented a unique opportunity to explore and expand the early history of photography in the city of Buffalo. Preliminary research has revealed the work of four successive photographers who are either unknown or weakly represented in the historical record. The photographic subjects, well-documented and identified due to meticulous record-keeping, represent some of the most prominent and influential men and women who lived, worked in, and built the Queen City. The Beach Studio collection is the single largest collection from this era to be held in Western New York, and is a highly significant resource for photographic, regional, and national history waiting to be told.