Olds, Harry Grant

Person

Olds, Harry Grant

• Olds, H. G.

1868-1943

Harry Grant Olds, son of Harrison Grant Olds and Georgina Judd Apthorp, was born on October 3, 1868 in the United States, in the port city of Sandusky, on Lake Erie (Ohio). In 1885 he began his photographic career as an apprentice in the studio of W. A. Bishop, located in his hometown. The following year, the studio became part of Clayton W. Platt's Platt Photographic Gallery. Then, in 1887, Olds moved to Palmyra, New York, to continue his training with famed photographer G. M. Elton. The following year he returned to Sandusky to work with Bishop at the Platt Gallery. He had the idea of saving money to start his own photographic studio. In 1893 he met Rebecca Jane Rank, his future wife, in Mansfield. That same year he was called up to join the ranks of the Ohio National Guard as a result of the national mining strike at Wheeling Creek. In 1894 he partnered with Albert Willman and they founded the firm of Olds & Willman with two facilities: one in Mansfield, Ohio, managed by Olds, and the other in Sandusky, managed by Willman. During the 1890s Ohio suffered a severe economic depression. In this context, around 1897, Olds received a letter from his uncle John Apthorp in which he referred him to a job possibility in Valparaiso and Santiago de Chile. It so happened that E. C. Spencer, an American living in Chile, was looking for a photographer who was up to date to work in his studio. Olds accepted the offer and agreed to a three-year contract with Spencer to work as operator and general assistant in the photography business. After communicating his decision to Willman, he sold the Mansfield photographic gallery. However, in late 1898 or early 1899, Spencer informed Olds that he could not fulfill the agreement, so Olds contacted Scovills & Adams, a New York photographic supply company, to inquire about possible work in Chile or Argentina. He was referred to Odbe W. Heffer, who managed Helsby's Corner photographic studio, the original daguerreotype shop, in Santiago, Chile. Olds left for South America on July 1, 1899 on the ship Buffon. He carried 4x5-inch photographic equipment and 200 dry plates. His trip was profusely photographed and described in letters to his family. He also made a record of notes on each photograph he took. In Brazil, he passed through Bahia and Rio de Janeiro and on July 29 he disembarked in Buenos Aires, from where he planned to travel to Chile. However, the crossing of the Andes was interrupted, so he had to travel to Montevideo and from there to Chile by ship through the Beagle Channel. He left on August 5 on the steamship Orcana, of the Pacific Mail and on August 20, 1818, he was transferred to Chile where Heffer received him. From the beginning of his stay, he perceived the character of his new employer as difficult, which he comments on in his letters to his family. He also refers to his willingness to acquire knowledge and experience, in order to later become independent. At the same time, both Heffer and Olds himself were very satisfied with the quality of their work. To his surprise, on December 7, 1899, he received a letter from Heffer informing him of his decision to terminate the employment relationship for financial reasons within six months. Faced with this circumstance, he decided to ask his uncle John for a loan to set up his own commercial photography business in Buenos Aires. He had considered that there were not many such ventures there, so it would be a good opportunity. At the end of March 1900 he arrived in Buenos Aires, having crossed the Andes Mountains by mule. Once he received the order for the photographic materials, on August 5 he made his first negative in Argentina. By December he was already in full development of his work. Two years later he summons his fiancée Jane Rank to Buenos Aires, where he arrives on May 12, 1902, to be married immediately. In Chile he had begun a series of photographs that he called his “general collection”, similar to what is known as a current image bank.
In 1901 he already had more than 350 negatives. For this series he traveled to different regions of Argentina. He portrayed views of natural landscapes and towns, popular types and scenes of customs. That year he was already receiving commissioned work from Argentine companies, such as Casa Drysdale, La Martona, views of estancias and the Sociedad Rural. He also received orders from the government. His images were published in postcards and newspapers thanks to the new photomechanical printing technologies. He was mainly dedicated to institutional, advertising, landscape, documentary and journalistic photography. Thanks to his work, Olds had achieved a good professional position in Argentina. There are indications that he returned to the United States several times with his wife. Harry Grant Olds died of cirrhosis on December 24, 1943 in Buenos Aires. The disease had left him prostrate for the last two years of his life. He left as a legacy a valuable record of South America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, through the eyes of an American photographer.

Year 1907: 25 de Mayo 412, Buenos Aires
Year 1915: Lavalle 1059, Buenos Aires
Year 1937: Lavalle 1362, Buenos Aires

Commercial photographer Freelance photojournalist Official photographer of the SRA (1901-1916) Exclusive supplier to the first postcard publisher Freelance photojournalist.

• Rocchi, Fernando; Waldsmith, John; Alexander, Abel y Priamo, Luis. H. G. Olds : Fotografías 1900-1943 : un norteamericano retrata la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de la Antorcha, 2011. - Srur, Alfredo. Reconstrucción Olds. En: Espejos de Plata.