Anderson, George Edward, 1860-1928
Dates
- Existence: 1860 - 1928
Biography
George Edward Anderson (1860-1928) was a photographer and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
George Edward Anderson (Ed, as he was called) was born October 28, 1860, in Salt Lake City, to George A. Anderson and Mary Ann Thorn, and was the oldest of nine children. He was apprenticed as a teenager under the renowned photographer, Charles R. Savage. It was at Savage's Temple Bazaar that he became friends with fellow apprentices John Hafen and John F. Bennett. Hafen was later to become an accomplished artist and Bennett was to become instrumental in preserving Anderson's collection of glass plate negatives.
At the age of seventeen, Anderson established his own photography studio in Salt Lake City with his brothers, Stanley and Adam. He subsequently established a studio in Manti, Utah in 1886. In the fall of 1888 he moved his studio to Springville, Utah, with his bride, Olive Lowry. He is perhaps best known for his traveling tent studio, set up in small towns throughout central, eastern, and southern Utah, where he captured the lives of the residents. These studios thrived throughout the years 1884-1907.
Although today we might think of Ed Anderson as a portrait photographer, his clear and artistic studio portraits are complemented by thousands of documentary portraits taken near homes, barns, and businesses. They document not only families but also small town Utah history. He documented, among other things, railroad history, mining history including the Scofield mine disaster, and the building of temples by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Pure landscape photographs were never his interest, but to many Church members, his 1907-1908 photographs of Church history sites are their only acquaintance with Anderson's photography. He photographed these sites while traveling across the country to begin his LDS Church mission in England from 1909-1911. The Deseret Sunday School Union of the Church published some of the views, as Anderson called them, in a booklet entitled The Birth of Mormonism in Picture.
Upon the completion of his mission, Anderson returned to South Royalton, Vermont, and set up a photography studio near the birthplace of the prophet Joseph Smith. He added a number of Church history site photographs, as well as portraits of Church members and local residents to his growing collection. Finally, in November 1913, he returned to his family and home in Springville, Utah.
After a seven year absence his photographic business was unhealthy and his family life was strained. But business and money were never the motivating forces of Ed Anderson's life—art and religion were his driving forces. Continuing to experience financial and marital strains, Anderson tried to revive his traveling tent studio but was met with little success. He was, however, able to earn some money from the sale of The Birth of Mormonism booklet.
The later years of Ed Anderson's life were spent in documenting families and life in Utah Valley and traveling to newly constructed temples. In 1923, he traveled to Cardston, Alberta, Canada with Church authorities for the dedication of that city's temple. He was to spend two years in Canada, thus returning to Springville in 1925. Though ill in the fall of 1927 and despite his wife's urging not to go, Anderson went once again with Church officials to document the dedication of another temple, this time in Mesa, Arizona. It was to be his last trip. He died of heart failure on May 9, 1928, after being brought home to Springville.
Citation:
His The Utah photographs of ... c1979: t.p. (George Edward Anderson) CIP gally (Springville, Utah; d. 1928)Phone call to pub., 1/19/79 (b. 1860)
Church history in black and white, c1995: p. xv (George Edward Anderson, known as 'Ed' or 'Eddy' throughout his life)
Wikipedia, viewed October 11, 2010 (George Edward Anderson (October 28, 1860-May 9, 1928); early American photographer known for portraiture and documentary photographs of the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temples; born in Salt Lake City, Utah; photography studio in Salt Lake City and 1886 in Manti, Utah; Moved studio to Springville, Utah in 1888; LDS Church mission to England 1909-1911; died heart failure on May 9, 1928 in Springville, Utah after being brought home from Mesa, Arizona)
Found in 36 Collections and/or Records:
Anderson family photographs
Collection includes photographs of the George Edward Anderson family, taken between the 1880s and the 1950s.
George Edward Anderson photographs
Collection contains eight boxes containing 130 items, including black and white oversized prints of Utah printed from negatives by George Edward Anderson.
George Edward Anderson photograph
A copy of a photograph of George Edward Anderson posing with Mabel Grace Clifford and Frank Douglas Clifford in Kennington, Kent, England on 18 April 1910.
George Edward Anderson photograph collection
Contains portraits taken by Anderson in Utah during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
George Edward Anderson photographs
Contains sixteen original photographs by prominent Utah photographer George Edward Anderson.
George Edward Anderson photographs of Icelanders
Contains five photographs of people who emigrated from Iceland to Utah. Portraits were taken by George Edward Anderson, circa 1890-1910. There is also a packet of pages that identifies the people in each of the photographs.
George Edward Anderson photographs of the Alberta Temple
J. Stanley Anderson photographs and postcards
Collection includes photographs, postcards, copy prints, photocopies and negatives of the original images produced by J. Stanley Anderson. Includes images of family and friends. Dated approximately 1880 to 1949.
Anderson-Larson photograph of the Brigham Young Academy Building, approximately 1897
Reproduction of a photograph of the Brigham Young Academy Building, approximately 1897. Print created between 1970 and 1975.
Apostles and temples from 1835 to 1886
Albumen photograph made by George Edward Anderson depicting all prophets and temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints up to 1886.
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