The collection consists of over 13,000 negatives and some prints. The photographs are of businesses, farms, main streets of towns, local colleges and natural phenomena in most towns in St. Lawrence County and a few from the surrounding North Country area in the early to mid twentieth century. Most of the photographs are aerial views.
Main Street 1964. Most every community in the North Country, including his hometown of Canton, NY, was captured by Church’s lens over his 60-year career.
Collection Overview
Dwight "Dippy" P. Church was born in Canton, St. Lawrence County, N.Y. in 1891 and resided there until his death in 1974. He owned and operated the $5 Photo Company for sixty years. Mr. Church was one of the first mail-order film processors and later specialized in aerial photography, photographing farms and businesses, selling the pictures to the owners. Dwight owned a successful post card business selling them in local towns, and was an active canoe racer, swimmer, gymnast, skater and hiker. The collection consists of over 13,000 negatives and some prints. The photographs are of businesses, farms, main streets of towns, local colleges and natural phenomena in most towns in St. Lawrence County and a few from the surrounding North Country area in the early to mid twentieth century. Many of the photographs are aerial views, there are no images of people or animals.