Wetherby & Kent – Two Generations – Two Cameras – One City.

As the old saying goes – “One picture is worth a thousand words.”

Which now brings us full circle. Isaac A. Wetherby (above left) in the 19th century. Fred W. Kent (above right) in the 20th. The one constant through all these years?

Photographs of Our Town – Iowa City.

For those of us desiring to explore Our Iowa Heritage, we must give a tip of the old hat to two extraordinary men – both armed with a single camera. One strolled the streets of Iowa City during the middle part of the 19th century. The other walked, drove, and yes, even flew over our fair city during the first half of the 20th century. Together, they snapped over 60,000 pictures along the way. From daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes to modern-day black-and-white and Kodachrome film, Isaac A. Wetherby and Fred W. Kent used their keen artistic eye to give us an expansive look at the people and the places of this city we love.

Let’s look at a few side-by-side pictures…

Wetherby’s State Capitol Building (1854) – Kent’s Old Capitol (1972)

**April 1865 – Memorial Service for President Abraham Lincoln, photographed by Isaac A. Wetherby.**

***November 1963 – Memorial Service for President John Kennedy, photographed by Fred W. Kent.***

Click here to read more about these iconic moments of mourning…

1820s- 1830s	mid-1820s first experiments with early photographic techniques 1839 daguerreotype process is made public in France 1839 the first camera, the Giroux Daguerreotype, is made commercially available
1840s	1840s widespread use of the daguerreotype in Europe and United States 1840 paper negative invented by William Henry Fox Talbot 1843 advent of the photographic enlarger 1845 Matthew Brady opens portrait studio in New York City 1849 advent of the twin-lens camera and the development of the stereoscopic image 1849 first images of Egypt are published and give rise to travel photography
1850s- 1860s	1851 introduction of the glass plate negative process 1856 photojournalism is invented when images of the Crimean War are published 1861 Matthew Brady and other photographers record Civil War
1870s	1870s U.S. Congress sends photographers William H. Jackson and Timothy O’Sullivan out West to document the American landscape
1880s	1880s improvements to glass plate negative process renders it easier and more convenient for photographers 1880s general use of the gelatin silver print 1887 introduction of cellulose photographic film negative 1888 introduction of the Kodak box camera simplifies photography and casual “snapshot” photography is born
1900s	1900 Kodak sells the $1.00 Brownie camera and makes photography widely available 1902 Alfred Stieglitz publishes Camera Work which promotes photography as an art
1920s	1920s advent of the carbro print – the first full-color photographic process
1930s	1935 development of Kodachrome film – the first multi-layered color film
1940s	1940s development of the color chromogenic print 1947 Edwin Land creates the dye diffusion transfer print – commonly known as instant photography or the “Polaroid”
1960s	1960s rise in popularity of the Polaroid camera 1963 release of the Polaroid color camera 1963 earliest pre-cursor to the digital camera is developed at Stanford University