Joe Williamson: sailor, photographer and collector.
Photo, circa 1940; photographer unknown.
Joe Williamson is a name often associated with the
photographs of the Puget Sound Maritime Collection, but who was Joe, what is
his collection, and how did it transform the Puget Sound Maritime Historical
Society?
Wikipedia labels Joe “Sailor and Photographer.” In his
lifetime, much of it spent on the water, Williamson documented a wide swath of
Northwest history with his camera, yet he does not garner the name recognition
of Darius Kinsey, Joseph Scaylea, or the Curtis brothers. Perhaps this is
because he himself did not consider photography his primary vocation.
Photography was the means to an end and that end was spending as much time as
possible on and around boats.
In his lifetime Williamson did everything from delivering
photo orders by motorcycle for Bartell Drugs to running a darkroom to patrolling
for fish pirates off the coast of Alaska. He traveled throughout the
Northwest, wherever water could take him. And he took a lot of photos. In later
days, he held court at a small photography shop close to the Seattle
waterfront.
We’ll have more on Williamson’s storied and multifaceted
career in future posts. Today we will focus on his photo collection and what
became of it.
CHALLENGE
Joe collected maritime images and by the time of his
retirement had amassed a collection of more than 60,000 prints and negatives.
Exact numbers are hard to obtain, but it appears that about half the collection
consists of photos Williamson took himself and the other half is made up of
images purchased from other photographers or outlets. The sum includes 3,000
glass plate negatives acquired from the Webster & Stevens commercial photography
company. A number of the images in the collection date to the late 19th
century.
Williamson was aware of the value of his collection. In
fact, he had set himself a very specific dual life-goal: to document maritime
life and to build an asset that would serve to help fund his retirement. In
1979, at the age of 70, he offered the entire collection up for sale. The
asking price: $50,000 ($163,000 in today’s dollars.) The San Francisco Maritime
Museum was quick to make an offer, but Williamson hoped to conclude a sale with
Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, the organization he had helped found
in 1948.
Board vice president (soon to be president) Jim Cole
remembers vowing aloud that the collection would not leave Puget Sound. The
board had had enough of the better funded and more pro-active San Francisco
Maritime Museum cherry-picking maritime artifacts from their backyard. Cole
soon realized that his statement meant he was volunteering to lead the effort
to raise the funds needed.
For the first time in the life of the Society the board
jumped into the deep waters of fundraising to raise the $50,000 purchase price.
Because of his close personal association with the group, Williamson allowed
the group a year to reach this goal. Led by Cole, the board reached out to their
membership and beyond, contacting old friends in the maritime trades and
sending letters to businesses and foundations in the area.
Jim Cole remembers the challenge:
We
talked about how we were going to do this. I had never done this kind of thing.
We did send letters out. There was a lot of word of mouth activity. My late
wife, Myrna, typed 180 letters to companies here.
A promise of $5,000 from H.W. McCurdy lent impetus to a
campaign that was slow gaining momentum. Several companies made sizable
donations, but the vast majority of the 476 gifts received came from
individuals. It took nearly the entire year, but the group made their goal with
enough to spare to purchase filing cabinets to house the collection.
Williamson's photo of a "Tugboat Annie" race, probably the 1940 event in Tacoma Harbor held in conjunction with the premier of the second Tugboat Annie movie, Tugboat Annie Sails Again.
CELEBRATION
As PSMHS zeroed in on its goal in the spring of 1980, the
Museum of History and Industry, the Society’s partner and home base, showcased
the collection in its Maritime Gallery (aka the Joshua Green-Dwight Merrill wing).
The exhibit included 60 images along with ships models and other maritime
artifacts. Jim Cole recalls that the exhibit opened with ceremony:
‘Mac’
McCurdy was going to cut the ribbon and he wanted Myrna to assist him. I said
I’ll talk to her. She said “No, I’m not doing that.” I reported to him, and he
said “She’ll do it!” I asked her a couple more times. She still said no. Well
the night of the opening Mac makes this nice speech. There was a crowd there.
And then he says “I would like to ask Mrs. Cole to help me cut the ribbon,” and
that woman said “I would love to!”
TRANSFORMATION
The huge Williamson Collection became the centerpiece of the
PMSHS archives, which to that date had owned only a few small photographic collections
to supplement its ships plans, models, and books. Acquisition of the
wide-reaching collection transformed the PSMHS archives from a little known
resource to an important and recognized repository of maritime history.
It transformed the Society in other ways, as well.
Collection management became more than an abstract concept. Once PSMHS had taken
possession of the thousands of prints and negatives, the real work began.
-- Eleanor Boba
Sources:
The corporate records of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical
Society; interview with Jim Cole, 2/23/15; McDonald, Lucile. “The Famous
Williamson Photo Collection.” The Sea
Chest Dec. 1979; Hemion, Austen. “Joe D. Williamson.” The Sea Chest June 1994; The
Seattle Times Historic Archive. Special thanks to Karl House and Judy
Kebbekus, PSMHS volunteers.
