The collection contains some 470 glass lantern slide images, most of which were taken by Emilie V. Clarkson (Moore) in the 1890s when she was an amateur photographer. Some of the lantern slides are images produced by other photographers. Also included are numerous medals awarded to Miss Clarkson at various domestic and international exhibitions she entered. Other materials in the collection include dozens of playbills, promotional photos and other memorabilia of the many theater shows Miss Clarkson attended as well as scrapbooks, portfolios, albums and loose leaf books of photos, papers, and cards. A few glass plate negatives are also included.
Portrait of Emilie Clarkson Moore.
Collection Overview
Emilie V. Clarkson was one of a handful of female photographers who showed talent and promise in an artistic medium that in the late 19th century was male-dominated. E. V. Clarkson was born in 1863 in Potsdam NY into the wealthy family that included Thomas S. Clarkson (namesake of Clarkson University). Clarkson studied art in New York City as a young woman and took an interest in photography by 1888. She graduated from the Chautaqua School of Photography and spent the next several years honing her craft and entering photographic expositions, exclusively as an amateur. Her work was noticed by various photographic journals such as American Amateur Photographer and Photographic Times. Emilie was active in the Society of Amateur Photographer of New York and was affiliated with several other amateur clubs in major U.S. cities. She became a confident of Alfred Stieglitz, and their correspondence is in the Alfred Stieglitz / Georgia O'Keeffe Archive at Yale. Her work was captured, primarily, on lantern slides, and it was exhibited at shows in New York City and in Europe. The 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition, however, would be Emilie V. Clarkson’s final showing. Later in 1901, Miss Clarkson returned to Potsdam, married businessman William Moore and did not continue her career as a photographer and artist.
The materials were donated to St. Lawrence University by John and Sondra Castle of Potsdam, New York in December, 2017.