The Sam A. Feltner Photo Archive

 In 2009 an archive of over 1,100 glass plate photographic negatives taken by Sam A. Feltner, a resident of Bumpus Mills, came to light.  He photographed local individuals, couples, families, etc., mostly during the 1910 - 1930 time period.  It appears most of his work was in Districts 3, 4 and 5 of Stewart County.  Over 1,700 photographic images are in the archive.  Sam was quite an entrepreneur.  Not only did he take and sell photographs, but he was an optometrist and watch repairman as well.  At one point he also sold penny postcards.

I was able to copy these plates and convert them to positive images.  I organized the images into categories, i.e. individuals (Ind), families (F), adult groups (AG), school groups (S), etc. and gave each image an identifying number.  The photos were indexed with whatever information was known about the photo.  In some cases identifications were made and included in the index.  The entire digitized archive has been donated to the Stewart County Public Library and the Stewart County Archives. 

          Unfortunately, the plates were not properly stored over the years and moisture damaged many of the plates.  However, most of the damage is limited to the edges so the people in the center of the image are still recognizable.

          Mr. Jim Long has been a great help in identifying many of the people in the photos.  We hope that as more and more people view the archive, more identifications will follow.

 

Duane Hargis, March 2010

 

Please note that the glass-plate negatives are in private hands in Bumpus Mills, TN.  The owners allowed Mr. Hargis to digitize them, and allowed the images to be posted online for crowd-sourcing the identities.

 

Clicking on a link in the table below will take you to the photo page for that category.  Beneath each photo is a Photo ID number, the identification of the photo (if known), and a link you can click to send Duane information about that photo.  Your help in identifying these photos is greatly appreciated!

 

A complete index of the photos is available here (last update 4/28/2024).

An index of those identified is available here (last update 4/28/2024).

 

You will also want to read additional information shared by others who have already browsed the photos:  Photo Info #1, Photo Info #2, Photo Info #3, Photo Info #4, Photo Info #9, Photo Info #10, Photo Info #11

 

Category

Category Code

Number of Photos

Last Update

Adult Groups

AG

174

6/26/2024

African-Americans

AA

81

11/23/2022

Couples

C

123

6/26/2024

Families

F

212

6/26/2024

Fort Donelson

FD

23

9/12/2015

Individuals

Ind

254

6/26/2024

Infants

I

193

6/26/2024

Miscellaneous

M

92

6/26/2024

Parent-grandparent and child

PC

96

6/26/2024

School Groups

S

123

6/26/2024

Uniforms – Army, Band, Woodmen of the World

UA, UB, UW

14

6/26/2024

Young Children

YC

388

6/26/2024