Photography used to be a complex and fragile process. Cameras were big and heavy, and taking a picture involved making negatives on sheets of glass covered with chemicals. Yet photographers working for the Draper Company in Hopedale would scale tall smokestacks or perch on slate-covered roofs to take aerial shots of the buildings below. They certainly took their lives in their hands to do this job.

Drapers hired several photographers to go wherever was needed, from ground level to the top of the tallest chimney, to get “shots” of the company and the town. The Draper family was proud of its accomplishments, and their collection included photos of the company’s factories, machinery, workers, and housing, along with pictures of the annual “Field Day” events and of life in the newly incorporated town.

Who were these daring photographers and how did Hopedale end up with a surviving collection of almost 4,000 glass images? Join historian Linda Hixon to see some amazing glass negatives and learn about the processes needed to scan, restore, and save these precious and fragile moments in Hopedale history. Included will be a “magic lantern” slide show of images from the Draper family collection. 

This presentation will be held on Sunday, October 20 at 2:30 p.m. at Hopedale Unitarian Church, 65 Hopedale Street in Hopedale. The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Blackstone Valley National Historical Park and the Hopedale Women’s History Project