William Alonso Clapshaw Self Portrait

Identifier

PUA_MS154_014

Title

William Alonso Clapshaw Self Portrait

Description

A self-portrait by photographer William Alonso Clapshaw. He is looking away from the camera while pulling a string that operated the shutter on the camera. He is dressed informally, wearing a white shirt that is left unbuttoned at the collar, dark striped pants and suspenders. He is seated on a wide curule chair that rests on what appears to be an oil cloth rug, with a plain backdrop behind him. This image was probably taken in Clapshaw's home studio; several other photographs exist that were taken in the same setting. The photograph is overexposed on the lower left corner and has some flaws due to deterioration of the emulsion layer on the negative.

This is one image from a set of glass plate negatives created by William Alonso Clapshaw. Clapshaw was a clerk and shopkeeper who lived near Forest Grove, Oregon for most of his life. He was born in 1880, probably at the family's home in the Hillside neighborhood of Forest Grove, on what is now Clapshaw Hill Road east of Gales Creek. Around 1910-1914, William took an interest in photography and created a set of glass plate negatives documenting scenes near his family's lands as well as images of himself, his friends and family members. He most likely used a silver gelatin dry plate process. The photographs were donated to the Pacific University Archives in 2023.

Creator

Clapshaw, William Alonso, 1880-1991

Date: Year(s)

1910/1914

Date: Display

circa 1910-1914

Subject

Self-portraits

Portraits

Place

Forest Grove, Oregon

Gales Creek, Oregon

Medium

Gelatin silver negatives

Source

Pacific University Archives

Copyright

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/