The misplaced images of Osbert Sumner

In the historic images on show on the Bona Thompson Memorial Center in Irvington, there’s a palpable sense of melancholy within the Indianapolis panorama and its residents.

In among the portraits, ladies of their ankle-length robes pose on dying timber in the course of the White River. Almost all the topics carry a pensive expression on their faces.

But the pictures additionally really feel serene, identical to the crisp, stillness of the river.

Left: Emrichsville (Riverside) Dam on Oct. 17, 2025. (Credit: Ted Somerville for Mirror Indy) Right: Two elegant women sitting on a snag south of the newly constructed dam. (Credit: Irvington Historical Society)

Other pictures within the exhibit present the interiors of buildings that are actually lengthy gone. In one in all them, two toddlers maintain palms on the grounds of Indianapolis City Hospital that, unbeknownst to them, would some day be part of IU-Indianapolis’ campus.

These black and white pictures had been captured by Osbert Reid Sumner over 125 years in the past. The then twenty-something newbie photographer captured town from his flamboyant perspective as a brand new resident.

Sumner was a Canadian immigrant who moved to Indianapolis within the mid-Nineties to dwell together with his widowed aunt. He additionally labored as a bookkeeper for the grocery retailer, Schnull & Co.

His colleagues gifted him a digital camera when he resigned from the job.

In the Nineteen Sixties, a pair, Richard and Colleen Wilson, moved into Sumner’s dwelling at 68 N. Ritter Ave. in Irvington and located a picket crate crammed together with his 4-by-5-inch glass negatives beneath their stairway. They donated them to Steve Barnett and the Irvington Historical Society in 2012.

All 338 of them had been coated in mud however a majority remained intact. They had been safely saved till the group was in a position to get a scanner.

Between 2017-2018, Steven Schmidt, a former board member on the Irvington Historical Society, scanned the negatives.

But, there was one drawback: not one of the pictures had been labeled.

Paula Schmidt, a former volunteer archivist, posted among the scanned pictures on Facebook to see if anybody had any data. It caught the eye of Deedee Davis.

Census data, Sanborn maps, diary entries, timber and even obstructed views of historic buildings had been the instruments at Davis’ disposal. It began to really feel like detective work.

Davis, who works as a reference archivist for the City-County Archives, stated her analysis intensified in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This spring, she compiled her greater than seven years of analysis into “The Lost Photographs of Osbert Sumner,” on show via Nov. 30.

“I think it’s one of the gems of Indianapolis history, it captures things we’ve forgotten or never knew,” Steven Schimidt stated.

Phantom connections

From July to September 2022, Davis cleaned and rescanned the glass negatives. She additionally traveled to Oakville, Ontario, a suburb southwest of Toronto, with the brand new scans hoping to study extra about Sumner and his household who lived there.

To her shock, the workers on the city’s historic society knew all about him. They had a digital assortment stuffed with diary entries written by Sumner’s father, George Sumner. He was the city’s chief constable and harbor grasp for 37 years.

“I think the diaries are just like the smoking gun, with really beautiful details,” Davis instructed Mirror Indy.

She key-searched “Indianapolis” within the digital assortment and located entries George Sumner had written about his time spent within the metropolis when he visited his son in October 1900.

In one diary entry, he wrote about his time on the first annual fall carnival that included a Magic Circle.

Left: Monument Circle seen from South Meridian, wanting north, on Oct. 17, 2025. (Credit: Ted Somerville for Mirror Indy) Right: According to George’s diary, Osbert captured his father posing in entrance of the Magic Circle Arch in the course of the Indianapolis Fall Carnival on the morning of Oct. 7, 1900, earlier than they watched the floral parade. (Credit: Irvington Historical Society)

Once Davis made the Oakville connection, she and Steven Schmidt began writing a ebook, “The Lost Photographs of Osbert Sumner.” It is accessible for $30 on the Bona Bookstore.

“I’ve always been amazed with Deedee’s research abilities. She gave me boxes full of details and then I just translated them into a narrative for the book,” Steven Schmidt stated.

Another second of happenstance got here throughout a dialog she had with a fellow member of the Indianapolis Postcard Club. He had proven her a postcard he bought on eBay. It contained an image of IPS School #45.

After inspecting the postcard, Davis realized that it was written by Sumner’s nephew, Nelson Sumner, and despatched to his grandfather, George Sumner.

“I felt like it was almost like cheating, because these details were just revealing themselves,” Davis stated. “This is the stuff where you’re like waking people up at two in the morning.”

New pictures, outdated strategies

Sumner usually photographed his hobbies together with mountaineering, bicycling and canoeing, as a member of the Indianapolis Canoe Club. His assortment accommodates many pictures he took on the White River.

He captured the previous Bates House Hotel and Tomlinson Hall, Central Avenue Bridge, Beer Castle, Indiana State Fairgrounds, the funeral of former President Benjamin Harrison and residential life in Indianapolis in the course of the flip of the twentieth century.

The assortment additionally encompasses a dozen images of girls in timber, which historians say was a well-liked development within the early twentieth century.

Left: The stairs to the Benton House are seen Oct. 20, 2025. (Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy) Right: An unidentified younger girl sits on the entrance steps of the Benton House on July 4, 1901. A carriage home or barn will be seen within the distance. (Credit: Irvington Historical Society)

Davis stated she was gripped by Sumner’s images that featured African Americans. She was in a position to find a photograph taken of William Brown, a coachman for the Van Camp family, who’re identified for his or her signature pork and beans canning enterprise in Indianapolis.

The actual digital camera mannequin utilized by Sumner is unknown.

Based on the negatives he left behind, it’s believed by historians that he did dry plate pictures. This format dominated the business till the invention of movie pictures.

Dale Bernstein, who has been a business photographer for over 40 years, does moist plate pictures, an identical course of that was fashionable within the 1850s. To him, it feels extra “handmade” versus digital.

To produce a wet plate image, you needed to manually coat a plate (glass or metallic) with a light-sensitive resolution simply earlier than publicity. Then, immediately develop the photo and fix the plate whereas it’s nonetheless moist all inside about quarter-hour.

Dry plates would have been extra handy for Sumner as a result of they might be saved and developed later.

The portraits Sumner had taken of himself present his humor and expertise. In one photograph, Sumner seems twice within the body, one thing he achieved via a method referred to as a double publicity.

Essentially, two pictures are taken utilizing the identical plate and the identical background, making it appear to be a magic trick.

Bernstein, 70, stated Sumner’s pictures are technically spectacular particularly for the technological limitations. He can spot some over publicity within the pictures, however he stated that’s what provides to their allure and emotional aesthetic.

“Perfection can be boring, the defects make it interesting,” Bernstein instructed Mirror Indy.

History tells an incomplete story

Sumner by no means had youngsters and died in 1932 from problems of esophageal most cancers. His spouse, Maye, lived of their home at 68 N. Ritter Ave. till her demise within the Fifties.

Davis described her eight-year analysis course of in two phrases — “gratifying challenge.” Steven Schmidt stated it appears like a jigsaw puzzle.

The story of Sumner’s pictures continues to be incomplete. Davis needs to create a digital assortment to make it extra extensively out there to the general public and discover assist.

Her subsequent quest is to find extra kinfolk of individuals within the pictures. As it stands now, the exhibit options an “unknown section” devoted to the numerous ladies Sumner usually captured in timber, associates on the Benton House in Irvington and early Black residents.

There’s one photograph that haunts each Davis and Steven Schmidt. It’s a picture Sumner took of a Black Civil War veteran.

They haven’t decided if it was taken in Indianapolis or Canada. Locations have been a relentless highway block to creating new discoveries.

“I still hope that we will find them, or any of those people, or some of the ladies,” Davis stated.

If you acknowledge anybody within the pictures, contact the Irvington Historical Society at irvhistoricalsociety@gmail.com or by telephone at 317-602-2962.

Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded via grants and donations from people, foundations and organizations.

Mirror Indy reporter Mesgana Waiss covers arts and tradition. Contact her at 317-667-2643 or mesgana.waiss@mirrorindy.org.

Related

Republish This Story

Republish our articles without cost, on-line or in print, underneath a Creative Commons license.

Local information delivered straight to your inbox

Mirror Indy’s free newsletters are your each day dose of community-focused information tales.

By clicking Sign Up, you’re confirming that you just agree with our Terms of Use.