Mississippi Steamboat Era In Historic Photographs Natchez- New Orleans 1870-1920

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Mississippi Steamboat Era In Historic Photographs Natchez- New Orleans 1870-1920
 
Mississippi Steamboat Era In Historic Photographs Natchez To New Orleans 1870-1920 By Joan W. Gandy and Thomas H. Gandy
Softcover
120 pages
COPYRIGHT 1987

CONTENTS
The Mississippi River: A Brief Sketch
A Second Chance
A Ghostly Bird Na
A Boat For The Times
The Landing Comes Alive
A River Town
"Crazy On Cotton
Cotton, Coal, Mail And Molasses
The Anchor Line
"The Dull Season"
Deluges And Delays
Disaster And Demise
Bibliography
Index

PREFACE
In 1870, the year of the famous steamboat race between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee, a young man named Henry C. Norman boarded a boat in Louisville, Kentucky, and traveled down the Mississippi River to Natchez, Mississippi, where he disembarked at the landing known as Natchez Under-the-Hill. Norman was 20 years old at the time. He left a mother and a younger brother in Louisville, where they had moved just a few years before from their home in Newnan, Georgia, perhaps because of the death of Norman's father.
Why Henry Norman chose to settle in Natchez is not known, but it may have been that the reputation of the town as a bustling little commercial center attracted him. Indeed, Natchez had become widely known for its wealthy citizens, beautiful mansions and gardens and thriving businesses as the cotton trade reached its peak in the mid-1800s. Moreover, Natchez was virtually untouched by the Civil War and therefore in an excellent position to make a comeback in the years following it.
Young Norman went to work for a photographer named Henry Gurney soon after he arrived in Natchez. Gurney had been in and out of Natchez for almost 20 years by then, having started out there as a daguerreotypist in 1851, when Natchez was said to have had more millionaires than any other town in the country besides New York. Gurney was therefore firmly established in Natchez when Norman became the studio "operator," learning the techniques of both camera and darkroom. For several years Norman worked in Gurney's studio, and it became clear that the young operator was gifted as a photographer.
By 1876, Norman had opened his own studio. It appears that Gurney may have withdrawn from the business to travel, or perhaps he retired. In the early 1880s, he was living in Minnesota and occasionally disembarking in Natchez to visit old friends when he made trips to New Orleans by steamboat. When he gave up the photography business, Gurney left Norman many-if not all-of his negatives and, it may be assumed, his equipment.
During the next 30 years, Henry Norman became the best-known photographer in the Natchez region. People from miles around came to his studio for portraits, and he was called upon to photograph the most significant social and cultural events. Norman demonstrated skill and artistry as a photographer but, more important, he showed a love for his work that is evident in the great number of photographs he seems to have made for his own pleasure, a truly remarkable record of his little town.


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