The Lost Photographs of Osbert Sumner

About this event

In 1898, Osbert Sumner (1873–1932) was given a camera by his coworkers after leaving his position at a downtown wholesale grocery. With it, he captured a unique perspective of Indianapolis at the turn of the twentieth century. His glass negatives were left under the basement stairs of his home in Irvington, where they remained hidden for decades, only to be discovered by future owners who donated them to the Irvington Historical Society. There were no names, no dates, just a cache of incredible images waiting to be identified, more than 300 of them. For more than seven years, researchers at the Irvington Historical Society have worked to identify the people, places, and stories depicted in the images.

Deedee Davis, Irvington Historical Society board member and reference archivist for the Indianapolis City-County Archives, will discuss the collaborative research process and the discoveries that offer a largely unseen perspective of early Indianapolis. Davis’s talk is presented as part the Indianapolis Public Library’s Culture, History, and Society series.

Note that the program takes place in the Indianapolis Special Collections Room (ISCR) on the 6th floor within Central Library.

For more information, contact Montoya Barker at mbarker@indypl.org or call the library at 317.275.4100.

This program received support from an Indiana Humanities Mini-Grant .

From Indianapolis Public Library