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Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Researchers may access digitized materials by visiting the link attached to each item or by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], James Edwin Green, Photographer, Glass Plate Negatives and Other Material, A&M 3460, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift from Green, James E., 2004/05/26

Biographical / Historical

James Edwin Green, Sr. was born in 1874 at Bear Creek, Pennsylvania, one of seven children of Thomas Bennett Green and Mary Rupert Green. Mary Rupert was the daughter of Civil War veteran Daniel Rupert, a Federal artillerist assigned to defend Washington, D.C. during the war. The Greens eventually moved their young family to Foxburg, Pennsylvania on the Allegheny River. Their son James worked in the oil fields of Bradford, Pennsylvania as a teenager until he left for Pleasants County, West Virginia, drawn by the oil boom of 1898.

James E. Green married Edith Sarah Taylor in 1901. Edith was a native of St. Mary's, West Virginia and the daughter of Thomas Jefferson Taylor, owner of Orchard View Farms. James bought his first camera in 1900 and began photographing people and points of interest in the area. His favorite subjects were his family, which grew with the birth of four children, including James, Virginia, Jeanette, and Gladys. The economic depression of 1907-08 sent James and Edith Green back to Foxburg where James worked in a saw mill, but continued with photography.

James and Edith eventually moved back to West Virginia in the 1920s, this time to Edam in Tucker County where James continued working in a saw mill until it burned down in 1930. He spent the rest of his life farming until passing away in 1952. Photography seemed to be the one consistent and most enjoyable occupation of James Edwin Green's life.

Scope and Contents

Photographs by James Edwin Green of the Green family from western Pennsylvania, and Pleasants County, West Virginia, and related subjects. Includes over 500 glass plate negatives and 1 1/2 inches of film negatives documenting subjects from ca. 1900-1925 including: the James Edwin Green family of western Pennsylvania and Pleasants County, West Virginia; Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) reunions; Foxburg, Pennsylvania in ca. 1910-1920; agricultural subjects; brass bands; oil or gas derricks in Pleasants County or western Pennsylvania; railroads; St. Marys, West Virginia; and World War I (WWI). Also includes exemplars of commercial packaging of glass plate negatives and film negatives.

Many of his subjects include his wife, Edith Taylor Green, their children, James, Jr., Virginia, Jeanette, and Gladys. Other subjects include his parents, Thomas Bennett Green and Mary Rupert Green, and his siblings and in-laws. There are also pictures of the Daniel Rupert and Taylor familes. James Edwin Green's wife, Edith, was a member of the Taylor family of Pleasants County, West Virginia, whose farm is recorded in some of the images. Most of these photographs were taken outside their homes or in local settings.

Green also documented with his camera the 1909 Reunion of the 101st and 103rd Pennsylvania Regiments of the Grand Army of the Republic at Foxburg, Pennsylvania. These Pennsylvania regiments fought in the Civil War under General George McClellan in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and the 'Seven Days Battle' for Richmond.

Item nos. 401-436 are apparently a systematic documentation of the town of Foxburg, Pennsylvania at some time between 1910 and 1920. There are images of the bank, barber shop, blacksmith, drug store, hotel, post office, etc. Other subjects includes street scenes, transportation, and portraits of residents.

Green also took pictures of 4th of July events, agricultural subjects (such as harvesting, livestock, etc.), brass bands, greeting card portraits with inscriptions, oil or gas derricks in Pleasants County or western Pennsylvania, railroad infrastructure in western Pennsylvania (images which apparently include family members who worked for the railroads), and St. Marys, West Virginia. The film negatives document James Edwin Green, Jr., as a soldier in World War I (WWI) and his time at Penn State College in the 1920s.

Green sometimes recorded subjects and dates to his glass plates. Some of the plates without such inscriptions were identified by the donor at the time of their acquisition; this data was recorded to the folders that the plates were placed in, and these folders have been retained in the collection.

In many cases photocopies of prints (made from the plates) were made to facilitate recording of detailed identification of multiple subjects in an image, often of people. This information can be found in the collection in box 15, folders 16a - 16d.

The collection also includes exemplars of commercial packaging of glass plate negatives and film negatives.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Agriculture -- West Virginia
• Foxburg (Pa.)
• Grand Army of the Republic
• Green family
• Green, James Edwin
• Oil and Gas Industry and Fields.
• Oil fields -- Pennsylvania
• Oil fields -- West Virginia
• Pleasants County (W. Va.)
• Railroads -- Pennsylvania
• Saint Marys (W. Va.)
• World War, 1914-1918 -- Photography