n an old Episcopal Church is stored an enormous historical treasure : over 200,000 nitrocellulose and glass plate negatives of photographs taken from 1894 to 1963 . Some of them were taken by Thomas Barnard , but most by far were the work of his onetime assistant , Nellie Stockbridge . Upon her death in 1965 , the photographs were given to the University of Idaho , which has had them digitized and given back to Wallace , Idaho , the small city they immortalized .
Wallace sits in a cozy valley about 14 miles east of the Montana border , at the bottom of the slope that runs down from Lookout Pass . Until 1991 , drivers on Interstate 90 had to slow down to drive through Bank Street , where a manhole cover is whimsically labeled “ Center of the Universe .” Today , they can hurtle past the quaint old town — unless they take the exit and spend a rewarding hour or two there .
History is what Wallace is about . The very buildings , little changed in 140 years , proclaim its 19th century roots . The city began in 1884 and quickly became the epicenter of the Silver Valley mining industry . It was a roaring , rowdy boom town by 1889 , when Barnard moved in and opened his studio .
He had already taken hundreds of photos when his studio burned down in 1890 , destroying over a year ’ s work . He rebuilt it and found he needed assistance , especially after he was elected mayor . A preacher ’ s wife recommended her sister Nellie , who worked in a millinery shop in central Illinois but had some experience in photography , so Barnard sent for her . She was 30 years old and , as she would remain for the rest of her life , unmarried . At first , she only worked touching up photos , but soon she took over the job of photographing Wallace and its people .
The mayor had his hands full with labor violence . Miners from Burke Canyon shut down two mines and blew up a concentrator facility in Wardner owned by the Bunker
Nellie Stockbridge
Hill and Sullivan mine , killing one man . Most of the perpetrators escaped , but three who didn ’ t were caught by a mob , which killed one of them . The mayor did nothing . Idaho ’ s territorial governor declared martial law and asked President McKinley for help . To the astonishment of the locals , the federal troops who arrived were African- American Buffalo Soldiers from Spokane , who rounded up the suspects and held them in a bull pen in Kellogg . Stockbridge took several photos of the prisoners , one of which shows the men sitting on the ground and
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