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