http://p3photographers.net/podcast/P3P061_MONROEP1.mp3 Transcript Go to Notes | Lifeline | Links | Transcript Notes Today we’re following the path of Olive Monroe’s career; our first stop is Kansas. Kansas (Phase 1) Ollie Heighton Monroe starts her photography career before her marriage; here we see a reprint from 1910 for a notice that originally appeared in the newspaper for Miss Heighton’s photography studio. It mentions getting a “perfect fac-simile of your “phiz”, a term I’d never heard before. 1885 notice reprinted in the Mound Valley newspaper in 1910 newspaper 10 years later, Mrs. Monroe is running photography studios in various towns in Kansas; here’s profile/writeup of local businesses for her studio in Oswege Kansas in 1895. Interestingly, it includes a photo of Ollie herself: Oswego Independent (Oswego, Kansas), December 20, 1895 Elyria, Ohio From Kansas, we now travel to Ohio, where Ollie Monroe lived for over a decade. While there, she ran not only a successful photo studio, but also for some of her years there also simultaneously ran a vaudeville and movie theatre. The Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) October 28, 1902 Headline and beginning of an article about Mrs. Monroe’s new theatre venture. The Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, Ohio), August 14, 1907 Despite the fact that Mrs Monroe consistently calls herself Ollie (a shortened form of her middle name “Olive”, her family persists in calling her by her first name, “Libby”, whenever they put notices in the paper that they have been to visit her. The Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, Ohio), December 1, 1906 Kansas (Phase 2) After leaving Ohio and briefly living in Seattle 1909, but 1910 Ollie Monroe is back in Kansas, opening up a series of studios again around the state, as well as managing a theatre again, this time in Coffeyville, Kansas: Coffeyville Daily Herald (Coffeyville, Kansas), December 28, 1910 Oklahoma After just a few years, however, we find Ollie Monroe in Oklahoma, first in Bartlesville, and then later in Tulsa. Morning Examiner (Bartlesville, Oklahoma), December 13, 1914 As mentioned in the podcast, in 1919 Ollie Monroe takes a cross-country trip by car with her son, daughter-in-law, and another family from Tulsa to California. Coffeyville Daily Journal (Coffeyville, Kansas), July 29, 1919 To get a sense of what that kind of trip was like in the early 20th century, I highly recommend checking out the book By Motor to the Golden Gate by Emily Post wrote about her 1916 automobile trip from New York to California. More information about Emily Post’s book is available on the Emily Post website. You can also find a free copy of the book on the Internet Archive here. By the 1920s, Ollie Monroe has joined son and their families in the Los Angeles area; she works as a photographer and lives in Calfornia until her death in 1931. But there’s more to come … much more! … about the journey of Mrs. Ollie Monroe. That’s all coming in the next episode – stay tuned! [Note: All the clippings are from Newspapers.com.] Lifeline Recommended Links Ancestry.com (census records, city directories, and more; paid account required – Visit Chris Culy’s blog – Visit Family Search website has U.S. Federal Census and more; free account required – Visit Geneologybank.com has a selection of digitized newspapers from the United States; paid account required – Visit Newspapers.com has a selection of digitized newspapers from the United States; paid account required – Visit Newspaperarchives.com has a selection of digitized newspapers from the United States; paid account required – Visit Peter Palmquist database at the Yale Beinecke Library – Visit Transcript You’re listening to Photographs, Pistols & Parasols. Support for this project is provided by listeners like you. Visit my website at p3photographers “dot” net for ideas on how you, too, can become a supporter of the project. ***** Welcome to Photographs, Pistols & Parasols, the podcast where we celebrate early women artisan photographers. I’m your host, Lee McIntyre. In today’s episode, we’re going to go on a journey along with a photographer named Ollie Monroe. For more information about any of the women discussed in today’s episode, visit my website at p3photographers.net. That’s letter “p”, number “3”, photographers “dot” net. ***** Hi everybody. Welcome to today’s episode of Photographs, Pistols & Parasols. Today’s we’re going to meet a woman name Ollie Monroe, a woman of infinite resolve and determination, whose career in photographer spans more than 4 decades! Libbie Olive Heighton was born in the U.S., either in Ohio or Penn., dependig on which record we choose to use as our source belive, since it varies. In any case, she was born in 1860, and in 1880, Miss Libby Heighton is living with her mother in Ohio, working as a dressmaker. By the way, I should mention that although her first name was really Libby, she never uses that name herself as an adult. She prefers to go by Ollie, which was based on her middle name, Olive. However, my husband Chris and I noticed that whenever there are social notices in the newspaper about relatives coming to visit her, she is always referred to as Libby, not Ollie. However, since she referred to herself as “Ollie” (or “Mrs. O.H. Heighton” throughout her career) I will that name throughout this podcast. Anyway, by 1885, she’s already established as Mound Valley, Kansas’ “best photographer”. One curious word I was not familiar with appears in one of her ads in the newspaper in 1885: it reads, “If you want a perfect fac-simile of your ‘phiz’ call on Miss Heighton.” “phiz” is slang for “physiognomy” (a person’s facial expression or features). I hadn’t hear that slang for “face” before, but apparently it was popular circa 1885. Now, even after Ollie gets married to John R. Monroe on December 31, 1885, she continues her photographic career. “JR”, as he is known, is NOT a photographer either at the time of his marriage or later. And in fact, throughout the next 46 years, Mrs Ollie Monroe mosty runs her studios all on her own, although, as we’ll discover, she does occasionally have a business partner for brief periods. Between 1885-1897 or so —- we’ll call this her first Kanasas phase — Mrs Ollie Monroe is busy establishing a little chain of branches throughout Kansas. Her home base is Mound Valley, but she opens up branches in Neodosha and Oswego, among other places, during this period. Toward the late 1890s, Ollie starts making frequent trips to visit relatives in Elyria, Ohio. While there, she winds up taking over an established photo gallery in Elyria as well. Eventually she either sells off or just closes closing her Kansas studios moves to Elyria permanently by 1900. This is Ollie’s “Ohio phase”, a period which sees her successfully running the popular Monroe studio in Elyria through 1908. Unlike in Kansas, she doesn’t seem to have multiple photo studio branchess that’s she’s running in Ohio. However, during this period she is also simultaneously running a vaudeville and movie theatre. However, she does turn over the theatre management to her eldest son, Wylie, around 1907 (at this point he’s 21 and married). 1909 is a bit of a tumultuous year which sees Ollie and her family leaving Ohio, and briefly heading west to Seattle. However, in early 1910 Ollie is back in Kansas, this time in Coffeyville, where she winds up running another photo studio. For the first few months, she’s partnering with a man who is not a relative; this is the only time we find Ollie doing that during her career, as mostly she either goes it alone, or partners with one or more of her sons (as we’ll see momentarily). Anyway, in this Kansas – phase 2 – period, not only does Ollie open that photography studio in Coffeyville in 1910, but by the end of that year she and her middle son, Charles H. Monroe, have taken charge of the Princess Theatre in Coffeyville. The newspaper headline proclaims that they are “succeeding where others have failed;” this is a rather an over-the-top newspaper account of Ollie and Charles running that theatre! Her youngist son, Harry, has by this time trained as a pianist, and he joins his mother and brother in Coffeyville, to work at the theatre. Ollie and her two sons also briefly form a partnership to run a photography studio together in Coffeyville: Mrs Monroe and Sons. But by the end of the summer that partnership has dissolved, leaving Mrs Monroe on her own again running the studio. At some point she and Charles also stop managing the theatre as well, but during this Kansas phase 2 period, Mrs Monroe also opens a branch studio in Oswego Kansas, where she’d had one years earlier during her Kansas phase 1 period. Plus, she and Charles are managing the “Star Photo Studio” in Clay Center, Kansas during this time, too. Then, after a year in California (where she may or may not have been running anything), she’s back in the Mid-West, starting her “Oklahoma phase” by opening up a studio in Bartlesville, OK, and then Tulsa. Plus, she apparently owns quite a bit of property in Miami, OK. Interestingly, at one point she and her son Charles have *competing* studios in Tulsa, before joining forces once again to run the Monroe studio in Tulsa together, along with Charles’ new wife, Julia. But then Charles and his new wife head to Calfiornia circa 1919. There’s a notice in the Coffeyville, Kansas papers in the summer of 1919 that Mrs Monroe, her son Charles, his wife Julia, and another couple are taking a motor trip (in 2 automboiles) from Tulsa to Los Angeles and they are going to be passing through Coffeyville, Kansas on their way and hope to visit with folks there. Hmm.
