Gerhard Sisters

Biographical Essay | Resources | Image Sampler

Resources

Collections

Library of Congress

Prints and Photographs Division
More than 100 photographs deposited for copyright between 1904 and the early 1920s. They appear in four LOTS and in unprocessed accessions and open files of photographs. Topics include ethnic photographs from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Worlds Fair, studio portraits, and copy work. Group descriptions and selected digitized images are in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog,
//www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Gerhard%20Sisters

Copyright records describe several hundred additional photographs registered by the Gerhard Sisters and the Gerhard Sisters Studio from the early 1900s until about 1934, but these images have not been found in the Prints and Photographs Division holdings.

Other Institutions

Missouri Historical Society
Gerhard Sisters Collection, 1904-1930. Finding aid,
http://archon.mohistory.org/findingaid.php?id=188&nostyle=1

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, National Anthropological Archives
Elizabeth H. and Sarah S. Metcalf Collection (Photo Lot 107) includes photos by the Gerhard Sisters made at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904.

Bibliography

Selected Written Resources

Abel, Charles. Who's Who in American Portrait Photography. Cleveland, Ohio, 1943.

Breitbart, Eric. A World on Display: Photographs from the St. Louis World's Fair, 1904. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.

James, Elisebeth Beverly. "Gerhard Sisters, St. Louis, Mo." Bulletin of Photography 18 (February 23, 1916): 229-235.

Johnson, Anne. Notable Women of St. Louis, 1914. [St. Louis: Woodward, 1914].

Martyn, Marguerite. "St. Louis Women Who Have Made a Notable Success in Business." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 10, 1917, 23.

Maxwell, Anne. Colonial Photography and Exhibitions: Representations of the Native and the Making of European Identities. London: Leicester University Press, 2002.

----. 'Montrez L'Autre: Franz Boas et Les Soeurs Gerhard.' In Zoos Humain, eds. N. Bancel, et al, 331-339. Paris: Ed. La D'ecouverte, 2002.

----. Picture Imperfect: Photography and Eugenics, 1870-1940. Brighton, England: Sussex Academic Press, 2008.

Missouri Historical Society. "Gerhard Sisters' Photographs." In: 1904 The Worlds Fair: Looking Back at Looking Forward,
http://www.mohistory.org/Fair/WF/HTML/Artifacts/

Electronic Databases

Ancestry.com library edition (subscription database).
Relevant record groups include Federal census records, 1880-1930; New York Ships passenger records, 1840s-1950s; San Francisco Passenger Lists Record.

Chronicling America: Historic Newspaper Collections.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
Relevant titles include the St. Paul Globe.

Proquest Historic Newspapers subscription database.
Examples of relevant titles include: The American Amateur Photographer, American Photography, The Atlanta Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, Bulletin of Photography, The Hartford Courant, The New York Times, Photo-Era, The Photographic Times, St. Louis Post Dispatch, The San Francisco Chronicle, Town and Country, and Wilson's Photographic Magazine.