Browse Items (30 total)

Built by Merriam Hess, contractor and
insurance agent, in 1894. Pictured in the photo, left to right, are Oral Vera Hess (1892-1970), Clara
Wilson Hess (1866-1940), and Merriam Hess (1862-1931). Vera Hess was superintendent of home
economics at…

After Everett Block printed and displayed the photographs in Sidney, Illinois and the surrounding areas, additional negatives or prints were given to him by other local families. This print is from the Taylor family.

The table in front of the two ladies is an incubator and the young chicks are spilling out on the ledge. This print is from the Taylor family.

The glass negative for this picture as well as 200+ others were found in the house’s attic in 1946, by Everett Block. Archibald Thompson and his family lived in the house in the early 1900s. The Kammin family lived in the
house from the 1920s-1930s,…

This is the only picture in the original 210 negatives developed by Block that features snow. Lighting and exposure times became trickier in snowy conditions. The house is still standing (2016) at 101 West Prairie Street, Sidney, Illinois but has…

Cut for the C&EI railroad. What is special
about this photograph is the photographer has etched his name in the emulsion on the back of the
plate. If you look in the upper right corner you can see the mirror image of ‘J.J. Fisher [space] Sidney.’

House of Luther Fisher, farmer and
owner of a real estate and insurance office in Sidney, Illinois. Luther Fisher (1850-1925) married Eunice
Guard (1853-1941). They had four children. Their daughter Leah (1884-1975) and husband Clyde…

Everett Block believed this was a self-portrait of J.J. Fisher. Note that the individual is holding a camera.

After the Sidney Spring Festival, Block continued to display the photographs and speak to local community groups.

One of the three original negatives developed by the University of Illinois photo lab.