Photographer and unofficial historian Barclay took over 1,000 pictures of Oak Park during the early 20th century, leaving behind a treasured legacy.
Born in Anna, Illinois on September 16, 1878, Philander Walker Barclay moved with his family to the Chicago suburb of Oak Park around 1890. Oak Park is well-known for being where architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed many a home, and it’s also the place that native son and author Ernest Hemingway noted snidely as having “wide lawns and narrow minds.” The staid pace of turn of the century Oak Park suited Philander Barclay just fine, however. Even as a young man, Philander began to collect existing photographs of Oak Park and its neighboring suburb River Forest, and by 1902 he had acquired his own camera and started a process of local photo-documentation that would result in a collection of over 1,000 negatives.
Wheeling Around
Barclay repaired bicycles in his shop on North Boulevard, and he also used that means of transportation to pedal around the area and take photographs of whatever happened to intrigue him. His shots mostly involved buildings and houses and businesses—from funeral homes to fruit sellers—as well as fire stations, railroads, and trolley cars. Though he was no doubt often recognized and fondly considered an Oak Park character riding along with his camera, one has to wonder whether all subjects of Barclay’s photographs were willing. A picture entitled Oak Park Police #2 shows an officer of the law presumably arresting someone, with the alleged offender looking a bit unhappy at being captured both in reality and on film.
Barclay’s hometown pride and fascination with the small world he was part of not only provided a source of record during Barclay’s lifetime, but since his death in 1940 and to this day, his photographs have become an invaluable link to the past. Though both Oak Park and River Forest are keenly focused on historic preservation, places and streets and businesses do change in the course of normal socioeconomic progression, and without Barclay’s photographs we might not know how that in 1903, River Forest was still a farming area in parts and it wasn’t unusual to see a cow standing on the front lawn of a house.
Barclay’s photo of the first “Locomobile” in the neighborhood, representing Oak Park’s entry into the machine age, was at that time a documentation of a new era, but to us it shows how much the car has transformed modern society. Now the Illinois prairie has diminished and the horse-drawn buggy is long-gone, but through Philander Barclay’s photos of seemingly ordinary moments, we still have a glimpse into where we once came from—in Midwestern America and beyond.
Legacy
Digitization of Barclay’s photographs began in the early years of the 21st century, to preserve his work for future generations. More recently, a photographic group on the website Flickr.com was formed to honor Barclay. Named The Philander Barclay Project, a few of their rules include:
- Photographers must ride a bicycle to the location to shoot the photograph.
- Efforts to recreate Barclay's photos by shooting the same location and subject (if possible) are encouraged, but not required.
- The style and spirit of the original collection should be reflected in some way in the new photos.
- Images should not be manipulated in Photoshop….
Furthermore, The Oak Park-River Forest Historical Society presents an annual award to any “person, organization, business or group who exemplifies the love of local history of Philander Barclay, the bicycling photographer,” and the critically-acclaimed restaurant in Oak Park’s Carleton Hotel is named Philander’s, in honor of that quirky bicycling photographer as well.
Sources
- The Philander Barclay Photo Collection: The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest
- Philander Barclay: Oak Park’s Historical Photographer
- The Flickr Philander Barclay Project
