{"id":21196,"date":"2018-10-18T09:48:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T14:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/?p=21196"},"modified":"2018-10-18T09:50:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T14:50:00","slug":"if-youve-seen-an-early-20th-century-photo-of-baylor-it-was-probably-taken-by-this-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2018\/10\/if-youve-seen-an-early-20th-century-photo-of-baylor-it-was-probably-taken-by-this-man\/","title":{"rendered":"If you’ve seen an early 20th-century photo of Baylor, it was probably taken by this man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

You know the photos: men and women dressed in layers of coats, bowler and cowboy hats abound, horse and buggies, maybe a few \u201chorseless carriages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of these kinds of photos come from the early 20th century — and the ones you\u2019ve seen of Waco and Baylor were almost certainly shot by Fred A. \u201cGildy\u201d Gildersleeve, AKA \u201cWaco\u2019s photographer.\u201d Born in June 1881, Gildersleeve was brought up in Missouri, where his family had moved after his father\u2019s death. His first entry into photography was at age 17, when his mother bought him a 1898 Kodak box camera. He learned he had quite the knack for the craft, and he used his unique skill to take photos of classmates for 25 cents each, paying his way to study photography after high school.<\/p>\n

In 1905, Gildersleeve moved to Waco to start his own photography business.\u00a0From then until his death in 1958, Gildersleeve took photos of Waco buildings, social and historical events, riding around in an Excelsior motorcycle and sidecar with his assistant, camera and supplies. As his popularity rose, Gildersleeve was commissioned more than any other photographer in Waco for local events and meetings, including his roles as the official photographer for Baylor University and the State Fair of Texas. Just about every existing photo of Baylor from\u00a0this time period was the work of \u201cGildy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Baylor University campus, c. 1920-21<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Baylor baseball game, c. 1940s<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Carroll Chapel and Library fire, Feb. 11, 1922<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Snow on the Baylor campus, c. 1940s<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Baylor Homecoming football game vs. TCU at Carroll Field, Nov. 1909<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Entrance to Baylor’s Carroll Athletic Field, c. 1920s<\/p><\/div>\n

In his will, Gildersleeve left his collection of 1,400 photographs to Roger Conger, a Waco-based historian who cared for him during the final years of his life. In an effort to preserve the images, Conger donated the remaining glass negatives of Gildersleeve’s work to Baylor’s Texas Collection<\/a>. Since then, the Texas Collection has been carefully and thoughtfully caring for the priceless images. This fall, two Baylor staff members published Gildersleeve: Waco\u2019s Photographer<\/em><\/a>, an entire book full of hundreds of his greatest works. (On November 8, the Texas Collection will host\u00a0a celebration of the book\u2019s release<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Gildersleeve\u2019s use of state-of-the-art lenses and flash powder, plus his ability to be surprisingly nimble with bulky cameras and slow film speeds, was what made many of his images possible. Your average 1900s photographer couldn\u2019t capture action shots, close-ups, or low-light photos.\u00a0A photographer with his skill would be a \u201csuperstar\u201d today, says Baylor lecturer (and longtime Waco Tribune-Herald<\/em> photographer)\u00a0Rod Aydelotte<\/a>. \u201cHe had no zoom lens, no high-speed ISO film, no digital, but 99% of his images are so tack-sharp that it\u2019s unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

We owe a great deal of thanks to this preserver of Baylor history. Without him, we wouldn\u2019t have a clear idea of what the Baylor campus looked like 100+ years ago, or how its early 20th-century students lived. So the next time you see the famous Gildersleeve signature on the corner of a sepia or black and white photo, thank \u201cWaco\u2019s photographer\u201d!<\/p>\n

Sic \u2019em, Gildersleeve!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know the photos: men and women dressed in layers of coats, bowler and cowboy hats abound, horse and buggies, maybe a few \u201chorseless carriages.\u201d Most of these kinds of photos come from the early 20th century — and the ones you\u2019ve seen of Waco and Baylor were almost certainly shot by Fred A. \u201cGildy\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-just-for-fun","category-photo-galleries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}