It was just after the Civil War when the first photographer set up a studio in Evansville. Before that time, the closest photo galleries were in Janesville. Evansville's first photographer was William H. Owen, who opened a gallery near the depot in 1866. 
Unidentified Owen Photographs
 
 

Owen advertised that he would do ivory types, ferrotypes, ambrotypes and photographs. To supplement his income he also offered a lending library. Books were loaned at a fee of 10 cents each. Other products included card photographs at $1 a dozen and in one three month period in 1870, Owen produced more than 7,000 pictures.

Only three of Owen's photographs are in the archives of the Eager Free Public Library. They are of unidentified people, a young girl and two women. On the back of each photo is Owen's name and "Evansville, Wis." The earliest date is March 11, 1868. 

Within two years, Owen had competition and for many years after there were at least two photographers working in Evansville. In 1868, G. C. Carleton opened a photography studio in Evansville and took in S. M. Taylor as a partner. Carleton sold his interest in the business to Taylor in 1870 and the advertisements told the public that Taylor could create beautiful "life size solar photographs". He also made frames for his customers. 
Reverse side of Owen Photographs

Photographers did not stay in business long. The competition from two studios operating at the same time proved too much for Owen and in March 1870, he announced that he would only be in Evansville for only three months more. He promised to sell his negatives to anyone who wanted them for a reasonable price. Owen sold his gallery to George Staley in 1870. 
 

Staley was 35 years old when he started his photography business in Evansville. One of his first pictures was of the new public school built just a year earlier. He gave the picture to the editor of the Review to hang in his office. 

George Staley renovated Owen's gallery and advertised that he would specialize in pictures of children. He promised "a perfect likeness in every instance". The new photographer gave a very interesting set of instructions for those who wanted their pictures taken. 

"If you come the next morning after being out nearly all night at a party, no matter how pleasant an expression you may assume, tell-tale photography will peep out in your photograph. If you wet or oil the hair too much it will make a gloss on it that will appear white in the picture. Do not try to be anything but yourself. Children should be brought on bright, clear days."

In 1873, Staley began to train a George Jenkins of Newport, N.J. in the art of photography and sold the business to him. All persons who owed money to Staley were asked to pay him before he moved on to Venton, Iowa where he had bought another photography business. He hoped for a fresh start in this newly opened land further west.

Jenkins took photos called chromos and stereoscopic views. The stereoscopic views were two identical photos placed side by side on a card. The card was placed in a stereoscopic viewer that gave the photo a 3 dimensional effect. 

George I. Jenkins' studio was on the second floor of Dr. Evan's drug store at the southeast corner of Main and Madison Streets. He hired Mattie Babcock, a talented local artist to touch up the negatives. The retouched pictures sold for $3.00 per dozen and untouched photos sold for $2.25 per dozen. 

Although many photographers of the time advertised themselves as artists, the photographs were often retouched by other artists hired by the photographer to enhance the quality of the photo. Many artists also used photographs as an aid to creating portraits.

Jenkins stayed in business less than 6 months and by June of 1873, he rented his gallery to Fred Eldridge and moved on. Eldridge remodeled the studio over the drug store and took more than 2,000 photographs. Three years later, when he had decided to pursue the study of theology in Chicago, he sold all of his photography equipment to E. N. Shaw. Shaw claimed to be an artistic photographer and copy artist. 

In 1875, Theodore Robinson, began to advertise that he would do crayon portraits from photographs. Young Theodore had always shown great skill in art work and after he finished his school work at the Seminary, he began to earn his living making crayon portraits in Janesville, Madison and Evansville. 

Even after he went to school in Chicago and later in New York, he arranged to do portrait work for local people when he came home on vacation. The cost was $10 for a 20 x 24 inch portrait. Smaller sizes were proportionally less. 

In August 1875, Robinson had decided to leave for Europe to pursue his study in art and he asked anyone wanting a crayon portrait to contact him immediately. He did not return to Evansville until 1879 but when he did, Robinson once again advertised that he would do drawings. 

However, this time he also offered oil portraits as well as the crayon drawings. Robinson's advertising requested that "All wanting work done in crayon or in oil, please leave orders immediately, I am leaving January 1, 1880". Robinson became a internationally known impressionist artist, whose work hung in the galleries of many of the finest galleries in the United States and Europe. Those who had his original works treasured it.

A. R. McKinney opened a new photography studio in the building he built at 13 South Madison Street in 1876. The building of this new gallery added significantly to the commercial buildings in Evansville. 

The original photography studio near the depot had been sold to L. H. Cook. He took stereoscopic views of Main Street from the drug store corner looking east. Cook photographed the interior of the drug store. He also photographed houses and created stereoscopic views which he sold for 15 cents each.

One stereoscopic view created by Cook survives as evidence of his work in Evansville. Like a previous photographer, Cook also decided to become a minister and left Evansville to take over as pastor of a Green County church in 1879.

George Wise bought out Mr. McKinney's photograph business in 1882 and he moved to Evansville from Stoughton. Doctors and other businessmen began to have photographs made to hand out as business cards to their customers. 

Wise expanded his knowledge of photography by attending national conventions. In 1884, he closed his studio for two weeks while he went to the Photograph convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. He advertised the latest techniques including instantaneous negatives. The new process made it possible for Wise to take pictures of "nervous subjects, weak eyes, light or dark complexions". 

Wise stayed in Evansville just a few years. He sold his business to Ferris Beals in 1885. Beals advertised himself as an "Artistic Photographer".

Beals' major contribution to the photographic history of Evansville were his group pictures. He took pictures of the Baker machine shop employees, the six Spencer brothers who had located in Evansville, Benjamin Hoxie's family, and the Sawin family during a reunion. He also completed photographs of the community band in full uniform, family reunions, and veterans groups between 1885 and 1889 when Beals sold his studio and went to Elgin, Illinois to open a new photography business. 

Farmers were often so proud of their pure-bred livestock that they hired Beals take pictures of their animals. N. N. Palmer of Spring Valley hired Beals to photograph three of his cows, Dean's Glory, Badger Girl, and a bull named "God of St. Lambert."

Beals sold his studio in the red brick building at 11 South Madison to one of Evansville's best known photographers, Elmer Combs in 1889. Combs purchased 10,000 glass negatives that had belonged to Beals and Wise. 

Combs had competition from Evansville's first woman photographer, Hattie Spencer, who had opened a studio in 1887. Her father, George, had purchased a house on North Madison Street and remodeled the second floor of the house into a studio for his daughter.

Hattie married William Metcalf in 1878 but the marriage was short-lived. When she divorced her husband, she took back her maiden name. Her only son, Lloyd, born the year after her marriage, also used the name Spencer. Her brother, George, who was a physician, dabbled in photography as a hobby.

Hattie Spencer took many photographs over the years, including pictures of Evansville's circus operated by George W. Hall and his descendents. She also photographed many of the Seminary classes. When her son was old enough to attend the University of Wisconsin, she moved to Madison and continued photography work there. Lloyd Spencer died in 1905 and Hattie died in 1917. She was buried in Maple Hill cemetery. 

After Hattie moved to Madison, Elmer Combs became Evansville's only professional photographer. Combs was probably the most aggressive salesman of all the photographers who had worked in Evansville. He made post cards, picture buttons, folders of city buildings, stamps, medallions and other novelties. He had a catalog of his work printed and sent to his customers. 

He also sold amateur photography supplies, as did the drug stores. Many of the early cameras used glass plates and he advertised cameras, plates, paper, and other supplies for hobbyists. If you purchased film from Combs, he would make one print from each exposure at no cost. 

In 1893, Combs built his own studio on North Madison Street. During the 47 years that he was in business, Combs produced more than one million photographs from some 86,000 negatives. Some of his most difficult work was photographing the animals from the Hall circuses. 

Combs went out of business in 1936 and the Hauser Studios of Janesville opened a branch studio in Evansville. Two years later, they hired A. A. Kaltenborn to be their manager and Kaltenborn purchased the studio at 12 East Main in 1939.

One of the first promotions Kaltenborn ran after purchasing the business was a baby picture contest sponsored by various businesses, including the Evansville Review. The judging of the contest took place at the Magee theater. 

Children under 5 years old were eligible and Kaltenborn made the pictures free of charge, expecting that parents and relatives would want to purchase prints. He made slides of the 125 entries and showed the pictures on the big screen at the theater during the judging. The winners were Sue Anderson, Ronald Nelson, Elizabeth McKenzie, Beth Elaine Kauth, Nancy Rasmussen, Buddy Meredith, Jack Covert, and Betty McCaffrey. Over the years that Kaltenborn was in business, he photographed many more children, high school graduates, brides, and families. 

One of the last professional photographers to work in Evansville was Don Every who opened a studio in the McKinney block in November 1939. He had operated his photography business out of his home. At his new location, the business was called Every's News and Photo Service. He did photography for newspapers as well as portraits. He also sold amateur camera supplies at his studio. 

Every formed a camera club to encourage and teach amateur photographers and opened his dark room for demonstrations. He showed Eastman films and slides on photography techniques and encouraged members to bring in photographs they had done. 

Over the years, the Evansville's professional photographers have created a wealth of photographic history of the buildings, people, and landscape of the city. Many of the early photographs are easily dated because the photographers stayed in Evansville such a short period of time. The later artists, Combs, Kaltenborn and Every took many pictures, over many years, making exact dates of photos harder to determine.