DGS Intl. Dinner - Early Texas Oil Field Photographers
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Commercial photographers captured many great views of early Tex as oil booms. Common scenes included oil gushers, oilfield fires, fields o f wooden derricks, and boomtowns. These photographs were produced and sold , often as real photo postcards (RPPCs).
Port Arthur, Texas photog rapher Frank Trost (1868-1944) had the good fortune to photograph early sc enes of the Spindletop oilfield (discovered in 1901), including perhaps th e most famous photograph of the Lucas Gusher. Trost sold over 45,000 print s of this photograph in just a few months. His other Spindletop views incl ude dozens of derricks so close together they appear to be touching, the f ield&rsquo\;s first oilfield fire, and several views of early gushers. Pos tcards were also made from Trost photographs.
Benjamin Harrison Lo den (1870-1926) was the founder and owner of Loden&rsquo\;s Studio in the North Texas town of Electra. His work appears to be generally limited to s cenes from the town and the Electra oil field (discovered in 1911). One ph otograph of his from the nearby Burkburnett oilfield has been located. His postcards include oilfield fires, derricks, gushers, and a missionary gro up ready to venture into the oilfield.
Frank J. Schlueter (1874-19 72) and his wife, Lois, opened a photography studio in Houston in 1907 or 1908. Schlueter captured scenes in at least sixteen Texas Gulf Coast oil f ields and the Vinton oil field in nearby southwest Louisiana. Though perha ps best-known for his oilfield photography, Schlueter also documented the growth of Houston and the surrounding area&rsquo\;s industries and agricul ture until his retirement in 1964 at the age of 90. Schlueter&rsquo\;s wor k includes some excellent panoramic photographs. Hundreds of Schlueter&rsq uo\;s photographs are preserved at the Houston Public Library as the Schlu eter Photographic Collection.
Two additional Texas oilfield photog raphers, active in the Houston area, were F. (Frank) G. Allen (1882-1921) and L. (Lester) L. Allen (1875-1949). These contemporaries are not thought to be related. Frank, formerly a New York newspaper photographer, photogr aphed scenes in Goose Creek, Humble, West Columbia, Damon Mound, Hull, Blu e Ridge, and Pierce Junction oil fields. Frank may have had a studio for a brief time in Shreveport, Louisiana where he produced and sold photograph s of the nearby Caddo Lake and Homer oilfields. Like Schlueter, Frank Alle n produced some stunning panoramic photographs.
L. L. Allen captur ed images in the 1920s of Raccoon Bend, Orange, West Columbia, and Spindle top (second boom) oil fields. He also ventured a very short distance into Louisiana, capturing scenes at the Hackberry oilfield. Census records list him living in Houston in 1910 and the Texas towns of West Columbia (1920) and Orange (1930).
Jack Nolan (1889-1972) was a pioneer Texas pho tographer and newspaperman who documented the East Texas oil boom of the e arly 1930s. Nolan&rsquo\;s real photo postcards are highly collectible and capture the hustle and bustle of the boom towns and oilfield camps, as we ll as spectacular images of oil gushers and oilfield fires. He also docume nted the enforcement of martial law in the oilfields by the Texas National Guard. Nolan photographed some of the early gushers and boomtowns of West Texas before venturing to East Texas. Jack&rsquo\;s postcards are also kn own for their highly descriptive captions.
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