Esmond G. Barnhill (1894-1959) specialized in hand-painted photography in Florida. Born on March 4, 1894 in Saludi, South Carolina, Barnhill established his first photography business in St. Petersburg FL during 1913 at the age of 19. Specializing in postcards and greeting cards, his photography business remained relatively small and he basically photographed, published, hand-colored, and distributed most of his work himself. His first postcards were printed in Germany, but in later years most of his postcards were printed by the Alberttype Co. of New York.
Barnhill expanded into selling hand-painted landscape photographs taken in and around St. Petersburg, eventually moving more into the Florida countryside. All of the Barnhill views we’ve seen are Florida landscapes, some as small as 2×3″, others as 11×14″. Some of Barnhill’s photographs are mounted on a signed/titled mat board, much like the other major photographers. However, most of the Barnhill pictures we have seen were either unframed or framed in newer frames. We assume that a lot of Barnhill’s original unsold inventory has recently surfaced and is slowly being released on the current market. The price of Barnhill’s photography is typically higher in Florida than anywhere else in the country.
Barnhill had apparently always been interested in American Indian culture. At some point he met Edward S Curtis, the famous photographer of the American West as a teenager. While working with Curtis, Barnhill learned the delicate “gold tone” photographic process using uranium dyes and experimented with this process from 1914 to the mid-1920s. It is quite evident in the color schemes used in a large number of his images.
During World War II, Barnhill established an Indian Trading Post in Wisconsin Dells, which operated in the summer months until 1959. Several years later, he opened “The Indian Springs Museum“.
Esmund G. Barnhill died in 1987 at the age of 93.
recommended reading: You may want to try locating a book on the secondary market titled “The Golden Age of Florida Memories: 1890-1930″, by Larry Roberts. This book includes a chapter on hand-colored photographs of Barnhill and Harris Florida.
