The following historical notes and descriptions were written by Helen Pike Walker. These notes were used for a presentation that Helen gave in Fryeburg, possibly to the Fryeburg BPW Club or the Fryeburg Historical Society. The presentation included a display of the photography equipment used by Elizabeth Wiley Pike and black and white photos printed from her glass plates.
My mother, Elizabeth Wiley Pike, was an amateur photographer during the late I 800's and early 1900's. This was her hobby. She did her own developing, and had a dark room. Most of her pictures were taken in the Fryeburg area. Some were taken in Massachusetts where she worked in the 1890's before her marriage. My mother was the daughter of Sullivan Wiley and Francine Benton Wiley. She was born on Smarts Hill. As a young woman she attended Fryeburg Academy and taught school in the area. She then went to Massachusetts and became a professional dressmaker, living in Allston, Mass. Her mother, Francine Benton, was the daughter of Mary Tyler, a niece of Pres. Tyler and Joseph Benton, a well-known physician surgeon of the early 1800's. He practiced in the Midwest and the East. He is buried near Hiram Falls. The cemetery is lost to the forest now. I'm told the epitaph on his tombstone bears the inscription, "Be careful how you tred o're this sod for if old Joe opens his mouth you're gone by God" The collection of photography equipment belonged to my mother. This was the equipment used in the 1880's to 1905. The camera takes both Instant and Time exposures and looks like a regular old box camera. Pictures could be taken either horizontal or vertical. There was a tripod used with time exposures. It used glass negatives, both plain and coated. There was a negative holder with a pin that could be turned to hold the negative in place. These glass plates were coated with an emulsion. They were inserted in the camera and you were ready to take your picture. There were holders for the plates so they would not be exposed to light before reaching the dark room. When she got home she removed this unit from the camera, took it to the dark room, pulled out the slide and placed the glass negative in the developing solution. The developing tray was probably Bakelite. My mother had carefully enclosed each exposed plate in an envelope and had labeled the envelope with the identification of the picture on the plate. These were all packed in a good sized Stickney & Poor Mustard wooden box. These envelopes would make another whole story. There were over 200 glass negatives in the collection and they showed what life was like in those days. Most of the scenes were of the Pike family of East Fryeburg. They were farmers on a fairly large scale, hand milking a herd of20 to 50 head of Jersey cattle. They made butter and shipped cream by the 10 gallon can to the creamery in Hiram and also Portland, Maine. This was shipped by rail from-Fryeburg. *June 2020. These notes organized, edited and transcribed from Helen Walker's original handwritten notes by Elizabeth Frye Walker Hiltunen, Helen's daughter. Elizabeth Sullivan Wiley Pike, born January 4, 1871 -died July 14, 1922 Helen Pike Walker, born April 10, 1909-died March 9, 2002.
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