April 16, 1999 – The Cedar Rapids Gazette publishes an article detailing the delicate work of restoring Isaac Wetherby’s iconic 1854 photograph of Old Capitol.
On August 1, 1854, Wetherby’s first Iowa City customer walked up the stairs to his new studio, and from that first day through the end of October, business was brisk. Throughout that first fall in Iowa City, when Isaac wasn’t pre-occupied with customers, he would venture about Clinton Street, experimenting with “non-professional” outdoor pictures near his studio – photos which, at the time, had little market value. But today, these outdoor shots, taken between August and October of 1854, have become Wetherby’s best known photographs, and by far, the most history-laden pictures historians have of early Iowa City.
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