William H. Gardiner

William H. Gardiner was a Victorian-era photographer. He is best known for his work on Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Life

In Canada

Gardiner was born in 1861 in

The Gardiners established themselves in Detroit, where William once again took up photography. The city directory lists several business locations from 1891 through 1896. Like many photographers, he produced portraits as well as commercial work. Several views of downtown Detroit and Belle Isle Park survive in his negative collection. There are also a number of photos of buildings at Grace Hospital, one photo of the State Capitol at Lansing and a group of photos of an unidentified "hobby" farm, likely in southwest Michigan. These Detroit views document that he was doing more than portraits, and are very likely only a portion of his work there. One of Gardiner's photos, of the Detroit Health Department, appears in the 1901 City of Detroit Annual Report.

At some point after his arrival in Michigan, Gardiner visited

A true distinction of Gardiner's work, and the one that would become his legacy, was the production of hand-tinted views. All Mackinac photographers offered prints of scenic island locations. Gardiner offered regular black and white prints, framed or unframed. His colored views, each hand tinted, were a cut above the rest. Hand-tinted scenic views were popularized in the United States by Wallace Nutting. A New England Congregational minister, Nutting was forced into retirement while only forty-three due to ill health. He developed a deep interest in early American architecture and decorative arts and became a pioneer of the Colonial Revival and preservation movements. Nutting published extensively on early American furniture and began to produce reproductions of the same. He also took an interest in photography, focusing on early American themes. Nutting's hand-colored images of New England, Florida and Ireland often highlighted their archaic historical charm. They were very popular, and Nutting is known as the father of early twentieth-century hand colored photos. Numerous photographers across the country emulated the Nutting style, producing views of picturesque locals. Gardiner likely began producing his hand-colored photographs of Mackinac Island and Florida in the early twentieth century. The compositions closely resemble Nutting's. Each was inscribed with the title and Gardiner's signature "W. H. Gardiner" in pencil at the bottom. H. Marshall Gardiner would produce the same type of images in Florida, Bermuda and Nantucket. Gardiner also continued to market un-tinted images, both framed and unframed. Gardiner continued operating his studio and shop throughout World War I, the Roaring Twenties and into the Great Depression.

He likely switched from glass plates to film negatives around 1915. None of these have survived. On October 22, 1935, on his annual autumn journey from Mackinac to Daytona, William H. Gardiner died of a heart attack. The studio and shop on the second floor of the Fenton Building on Mackinac Island remained property of the family until Louise and Marshall Gardiner's deaths in 1942, within days of each other. The contents of the studio were abandoned where they remained in an unused portion of the second floor for the next quarter century.^[4] William H. Gardiner and Louise were survived by their son H. Marshall Gardiner and his sister. H. Marshall Gardiner became a famous photographer in Nantucket, MA.

References

Brisson, Steven C. Picturesque Mackinac: The Photographs of William H. Gardiner, 1896-1915 (2005)