William Hoyle Garber photographs
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Not requestable
Scope and Content
The William Hoyle Garber Photographs, 1930-1960, consists of 1.46 cubic feet of material. The bulk of the material was created between 1935 and 1950 and comprises 1705 images including 1615 black and white negatives, 20 color negatives, and 70 prints that were taken and developed by William Garber of Garber’s Photo Shop in Mount Jackson, Virginia. The subject matter of the images encompasses the people, places, industries, automobiles, sports, events, disasters, etc., of the northern Shenandoah Valley, Virginia; primarily between the cities of Harrisonburg and Woodstock. The collection is organized into twelve series: Buildings and Places, Industry, Motor Vehicles, Civil and Armed Services, School Photos, Sports and Outdoor Recreation, Horses and Horse Events, Other Events and Entertainment, Accidents and Disasters, Miscellaneous, Aerial Photography, and Photograph Prints.
Dates
- 1930 - 1960
Creator
- Garber, W. Hoyle (William Hoyle), 1915-1992 (Photographer, Person)
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research. The photographic negatives are housed in freezer storage and are not available to researchers. Negatives have been digitized and are accessible via JMU Scholarly Commons (https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/garber/). Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the James Madison University Special Collections Library to use this collection.
Use Restrictions
Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library Reference Desk (library-special@jmu.edu).
Biographical/Historical Note
William Hoyle Garber was born on May 25, 1915 at Mount Clifton, Virginia, to John William and Birdie Lonas Garber. After completing his education in 1933 at the Randolph-Macon Academy in Front Royal, Virginia, he graduated from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia, and married Ethel M. Ritenour on December 24, 1938.
After fighting in the Pacific Theater as a first lieutenant for the United States Army during World War II, Garber held a number of simultaneous occupations and participated in several different organizations. In addition to owning Garber’s Photo Shop and being the president of the Garber-Moyers-Johnson Insurance Agency, Garber was a commander and life member of the Massanutten Post No. 2447, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Edinburg; a member of the Mount Jackson Masonic Lodge No. 103, the American Legion Post No. 199 at Woodstock, and Chapter No. 162 of the Order of the Eastern Star, for which he was appointed the very first Worthy Patron of Mount Jackson. Furthermore, he was an active member of the Chamber of Commerce for both Edinburg and Mount Jackson, and he served on the Mount Jackson Town Council for twenty-six years. Of particular relevance to this collection, Garber earned a private pilot’s license in 1947, and became known for his aerial photography.
In 1983, William Garber retired and moved from New Market to Mount Jackson, Virginia. During his retirement, he remained active in many of these organizations, and also played a key role in the founding of the Shenandoah County Historical Society in the 1980s. Garber passed away on May 14, 1992 at the Winchester Medical Center at the age of seventy-six, and was buried at Flat Rock Cemetery in Forestville, Virginia.
Extent
1.46 cubic feet (5 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The William Hoyle Garber Photographs, 1930-1960, comprise approximately 1625 negatives and 70 prints that were taken and developed by William Garber of Garber’s Photo Shop in Mount Jackson, Virginia. The photographs document the people, places, industries, automobiles, sports, events, disasters, etc., of the central and northern Shenandoah Valley (primarily between the cities of Harrisonburg and Woodstock).
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into 12 topical series: Buildings and Places, Industry, Motor Vehicles, Civil and Armed Services, School Photographs, Sports and Outdoor Recreation, Horses and Horse Events, Other Events and Entertainment, Accidents and Disasters, Miscellaneous, Aerial Photographs, and Print Photographs.
Provenance
Per notes from a meeting between K. B. Getz and Tracy Harter, then-Special Collections Librarian, Garber's widow sold the collection to Paper Treasures Book Store and Gallery in New Market.
Acquisition Information
Purchased from local freelance photographer K. B. Getz on October 8, 2009.
Other Formats Available
This collection has been digitized and is available online on JMU Scholarly Commons (https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/garber/).
Separated Materials
In December 2021, a copy of The National Geographic Magazine (July 1949, volume 96, number 1) was removed from the collection and cataloged individually as part of Special Collections rare book holdings. The issue features an article titled "Appalachian Valley Pilgrimage” by Catherine Bell Palmer, which includes a description of the Shenandoah Valley. The black and white photographs accompanying this article may be the work of Garber, but the photographs are not cited and there are no prints or negatives of those same images within this collection.
Processing Information
A large portion of the negatives in this collection were originally housed together in clear photo album sleeves, with minimal labeling identifying the place, year, or event of the images within that particular sheet. That information has been included in the container chart. It is also important to note that, in several cases, a portion of filmstrip remained uncut that included between two and four images, and so those negatives are housed in the same sleeve. Furthermore, any negatives that were too large for the photograph storage boxes were organized into the “Oversize Negatives” folder in Box 5, as noted in the collection inventory.
The collection number was updated in December 2021 from P 0002 to SC 0318 to 1. align with established manuscript collection numbering scheme with SC prefix and 2. renumber all "photograph" collections with P prefix. The collection title was updated from William Garber Photograph Collection to William Hoyle Garber Photographs to incorporate Garber's middle name by which he was widely known as well as to remove extraneous descriptions within the collection title. At this time, the description was updated with only minor edits. Individual photograph numbers that were assigned during initial processing and digitization were retained. During initial processing, all series were further divided into sub-series. This arrangement was abandoned in December 2021 as that level of granular arrangement in digitized photograph collections does not typically faciliate researcher access or discovery.
- Negatives (photographs)
- Photographers -- Virginia -- 20th century
- Photographs
- Rockingham County (Va.) -- History
- Rockingham County (Va.) -- Social life and customs
- Shenandoah County (Va.) -- History
- Shenandoah County (Va.) -- Social life and customs
- Shenandoah River Valley (Va. and W. Va.) -- Aerial photographs
- Shenandoah River Valley (Va. and W. Va.) -- History
- Shenandoah River Valley (Va. and W. Va.) -- Social life and customs
- Virginia -- History
- Virginia -- Social life and customs
Source
- Getz, K. B. (Seller, Person)
Creator
- Garber, W. Hoyle (William Hoyle), 1915-1992 (Photographer, Person)
- Title
- A Guide to the William Hoyle Garber Photographs, 1930-1960
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Angela L. Walthall, Julia Merkel (updated July 2012)
- Date
- September 2011
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- July 2012: Updated by Julia Merkel
- December 2021: Collection number, collection title, and description updated.
Repository Details
Part of the James Madison University Libraries Special Collections Repository
880 Madison Drive
MSC 1704
Harrisonburg Virginia 22807
(540) 568-3612
library-special@jmu.edu