By Linda Ross
When I began working in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center at the Morristown & Morris Township Public Library, the Frederick Curtiss Photograph Collection was just waiting for me.
Among its more than 6,000 images — and the logbooks that document them — lay a visual story of life in Morristown in the early 20th century. After weeks of going through the photos, choosing many to be scanned and uploaded to the history center’s digital database, my curiosity about the photographer, his life, and work was a growing itch that had to be scratched.
Using the resources available in the NJHGC, I began to investigate. First I consulted the Curtiss family file, hoping to unearth Fred’s story.
I found a paragraph about him (written by a niece who misspelled his name) and a copy of the article that appeared in the Daily Record when he died.
I turned to the genealogy databases the History Center makes available: The library edition of Ancestry.com; History Quest; FamilySearch; records from the New Jersey State Archives; city directories; and other online tools the library provides.
From these I was able to piece together an outline of Fred and his life and career.
Fred was born in Newark near the end of the Civil War, the first of five children of Jesse Louis Curtiss and Mary A. Pangburn. His family moved to Morristown, probably when he was in his early teens.
The 1880 census reports that his father, Jesse, was a farm worker and his mother worked at home. Fred, at age 16, lived with his parents, worked in a machine shop, and had not attended school within that year.
In March 1886, when Fred was 22, he married 15-year-old Eliza J. Chamberlain, from Morris Plains. At about this time he also became a clerk for the Morris Aqueduct Company, which provided the water supply to Morristown.
In February of the following year, Eliza and Fred had a daughter, Annie. Sadly, Annie lived only 15 months, dying in May, 1888. In April 1891, Fred and Eliza had their only other child, a son they named Charles.
The family lived in Morristown’s Third Ward for several years, first on Spring Street, then at 7 High St. By 1907, they had moved to Clark Row on Morris Street, at the corner of Olyphant Place.
They lived in this location for several years, while Fred continued to work for the aqueduct company and Charles grew into a young man.
At Christmas in 1902, Fred received his first camera, a Kodak #4 Bullet Special. He immediately began taking photographs of friends and family.
From the beginning of his photographic work he kept a detailed log of each shot, describing the subject, the location, light and weather conditions, and the camera settings he used.
Fred’s family members were the subjects of many of his early photos. Mariby Curtiss, wife of his brother Sam, is frequently shown in photos with Eliza. Eliza often posed alone, as did their son, Charles. Each Christmas and New Year’s Day the Newark extended family, along with boarders and friends, gathered for their holiday portrait.
Properties of the Morris Aqueduct Company, including reservoirs, pumping stations, and the pumps themselves, were recurring subjects for Fred.
He seemed fascinated with the railroad as well – there are many photos of the buildings, crossings and rolling stock of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the Morristown & Erie Railroad.
He documented the erection of the new train station in Morristown over the several months of its construction, and supplied pictures of the first trains (east-bound and west-bound) across the new bridge at Morris Street.
As Fred gained proficiency – and perhaps confidence – at photography, his field expanded to include portraits of many Morristown residents, their houses, animals and children, and local events such as parades and other celebrations.
Fred’s photographs attest to Eliza’s declining health after 1915. She died in August 1917, and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown. Fred never remarried.
Shortly before Eliza’s death, the United States entered the Great War. Young men joined – or were drafted into – the military. Charles registered on May 5, 1917, and entered the Chemical Service unit of the US Army. It is unclear if Charles actually served outside the United States or if the war ended before he was called up.
Once the town of Morristown took over the Morris Aqueduct Company, Fred left its employ and set up as a commercial photographer.
His work became more business-like, with fewer personal photographs and more shots of local businesses and civic events. His photos appeared in The Jerseyman, the Daily Record, the Newark Evening News, and the New York Times.
He photographed businesses and their products for advertising campaigns. He appears to have become the official photographer of the annual Community Chest appeal and the Morris County Fair.
He made photos of automobile accidents, and of fire- and weather-damaged structures for insurance companies, and of mortgaged homes for the banks. And he continued to do portraiture.
Although there are many pictures of Charles with a variety of girls and women, it seems he never married. He continued to live at home with Fred, working as a truck driver for the Standard Oil Company for a while; as a clerk in the Mutual Grocery; and as Fred’s assistant.
Fred and Charles moved to Morris Plains between 1927 and 1930. Charles died of unspecified causes on January 4, 1933. The American Legion local post arranged a military funeral for him. Charles, too, is buried at Evergreen Cemetery.
Fred worked as a photographer for the rest of his life. On Monday, November 28, 1938, Morristown residents saw this front-page headline in the Daily Record: “Photographer Dies Suddenly.”
The accompanying article explained that Fred was last seen on Friday shoveling snow at his house on Morris Plains Avenue.
With no sight of him through the weekend, neighbors became concerned and when he did not answer the door on Monday, they called the police.
Once inside the house, the police found him unresponsive. He had suffered a stroke and never regained consciousness. He died later that morning.
The History Center helped me find Fred, but his photographs let me see into his life. You can explore his photographs here.
Wow….I found a picture in the collection of my Great Great Grandfather’s Hardware and Lumber yard in Boonton, Dawson Lumber Yard. That was a surprise!
Thanks, Mike! The Curtiss collection contains approximately 10,000 photographs and 600 glass plate negatives, and we are working to make these available on our website for those who cannot visit us in person; so far, about 1,600 images have been scanned. You can find the online collection at: https://bit.ly/1ZWwqJN
Great stuff, thanks for sharing. Are there more images?
Wonderful article. Curtiss photos contribute greatly to the documentation of Morristown throughout that period.