Charles W. Love photographs

Collection

Identifier: Org. Lot 860

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of photographs by Charles W. Love, an amateur photographer and street railway employee in Portland, Oregon. Forty-nine black and white photographs document various streetcar lines on which Love and his brothers worked between 1900 and 1910, most notably the lines in the areas of Albina and St. Johns. Thirty-five black and white photoprints show Brownsville, Oregon, circa 1912, including the Pendleton Woolen Mills facilities. One photograph also shows the downtown Portland waterfront area from the Willamette River.

This collection also includes 142 glass plate negatives, nineteen of which feature Eliza, of the Kalapuya people, who appears to have been personally known by the photographer. She is pictured in Brownsville at both his residence and her own in Brownsville. Other subjects photographed include Brownsville, Gearhart, lighthouses, and various ships in dry dock. Access prints made from many of the negatives in this collection are available to researchers.

Dates

1898-1912

Creator

Love, Charles W. (Charles Walter), 1873-1962 (Photographer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.

Biographical note

Charles W. Love was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1873. He was one of seven sons of William and Sarah Love, who had come to Oregon from Illinois. By the time Love married Sarah E. Lacey/Lacye, in 1897, he was working as a photographer in Portland. By 1900, however, Love and three of his brothers (Albert, Ulysses, and Frank) began work for the City and Suburban Railway Company. Love held various positions, such as conductor, carman, and motorman, photographing many of the lines on which he worked. During this period, street railway companies were consolidating and competing, the lines being built by real estate developers to promote newly-built suburban neighborhoods. By the end of Love's streetcar career, in 1910, he had also worked for the Portland Railway Company and the Portland Railway, Light, and Power Company. In 1912, Love and his family settled in Brownsville, Oregon. He and Sarah had one daughter, Eva. Love died in 1962 in Yamhill County, but lived most of his life in Portland.

Extent

0.5 Cubic Feet (2 document cases) : Glass plate negatives; photographic prints

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Charles W. Love was an amateur photographer and street railway employee in Portland, Oregon. This collection, consisting of photographic prints and glass-plate negatives, features images of the employees and cars of the Portland Railway Company, the City and Suburban Railway Company, and the Portland Railway, Light, and Power Company during the period from 1898-1910. Other photographs in this collection document Brownsville, Oregon, circa 1912.