Stereograph of Main Street North View from Capitol (No. 17) - Popular Series of Southern Views Series

Photograph

Historic Columbia Foundation

Name/Title

Stereograph of Main Street North View from Capitol (No. 17) - "Popular Series of Southern Views" Series

Entry/Object ID

2016.5.2

Description

Stereograph containing two nearly identical photographs of a road. A white fence appears on the left and right in the center of the image, and buildings line the perpendicular dirt street. A sculpture of some sort is situated on the road near the bottom center of the photographs. The two photographs are adhered side-by-side to a thick cardstock backing. The back of the cardstock contains the printed maker's mark of the photographer and his information, as well as a handwritten title of the photograph, "Main Street from State House."

Photograph Details

Type of Photograph

Stereograph

Subject Place

City

Columbia, South Carolina

Context

Photographer William A. Reckling (1849–1913) was born in Vienna, Austria, to August (1817–1899) and M. Theresia Reckling (1819–1869). Around 1853, the family left Europe for the United States, settling in South Carolina by 1855. Residents of Columbia by 1859, the family initially lived on Richardson (Main) Street and were supported by August's income as a cabinetmaker. Following in the artistic footsteps of his father, Reckling took an interest in photography. (During the late nineteenth century, photography was a focus of controversy in the art world, with traditionalists considering it nothing more than mere documentation and photographers and others interested in these new pictures considering it a new form of artistic expression.) After working as an apprentice to local photographers William Preston Hix (ca. 1836–1911) and Richard Wearn (1826–1874) during his adolescence, Reckling moved to Rome, Georgia, in the early 1870s to establish his own photography gallery and business. After several successful years in Georgia, Reckling returned to Columbia in 1874 with a reputation as "an artist" and one of the South's preeminent photographers ("The Daily Phoenix," April 10, 1874, p.2). Opening his gallery at 110 1/2 Richardson Street (1435 Main Street), Reckling continued in his line of work until his death in 1913. This stereograph is number seventeen, "Main Str't N. from Capitol," of Reckling's "Popular Series of Southern Views." Although Richardson Street was not officially renamed Main Street until 1892, proprietors regularly used the latter as early as the 1870s in promotional materials. These images of Main Street, as viewed from the South Carolina State House, depict the structures built in the years after the Burning of Columbia, which almost completely destroyed Main Street in February 1865. Located on the nearest building on the left is an advertisement for R.D. Senn and Son's grocery. Rufus Dreher Senn (1824–1898) and his sons, Charles Tunison (1858–1925), Daniel Lewis (1846–1895), and Rufus, Jr. operated a grocery store at the corner of Gervais and Richardson streets. Prior to opening the grocery store, Rufus, Sr. served as a captain in the Civil War. He enslaved ten people in 1860.