LIVING HISTORY
The Florida Photographic Concern also sold camera supplies, a commodity
advertised in the studio’s window on Second Street.
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ST. LUCIE COUNTY REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER
It pays to advertise and Harry Hill knew it. The Hill family Overland automobile
had the Florida Photographic Concern logo affixed to the radiator
for all to see.
when Harry was fulfilling his obligations to the Florida East
Coast Railway. Even before he was old enough to hold a camera,
Lowell Hill was part of the family enterprise.
BOOMING BUSINESS
By the time The Bee Keeper ceased publishing in 1908, Hill’s
photography business was booming. “FIRM BECOMES
FAMOUS,” trumpeted the St. Lucie Tribune in August 1908.
“Today the art prints of the Florida Photographic Concern are
on sale in the art shops of nearly every state in the Union, and
shipments have recently been made to Alaska and foreign
countries.” Hill became an internationally renowned photographer,
but his enduring legacy is the thousands of images he
captured close to his home in Florida.
“What the Hills did best was to show that people in our
area in years past lived very much like we do today,” said
Brynn Batsche, educational director for the St. Lucie County
Regional History Center, which houses a large collection
of Hill photos. “They enjoyed fun times at the beach, went
through hardships such as hurricanes, loved their children
and pets, went shopping and worked hard. These aren’t stale,
cold pictures. These are pictures of people living their lives
just as we do.”
FOCUS ON POST CARDS
A valuable segment of Hill’s work is his images of the Cow
Creek Indians who lived southwest of Fort Pierce and frequently
came into town. Among the subjects of his portraits
were the legendary Polly Parker, “The Evangeline of the
Seminoles,” and Billy Bowlegs III. A group portrait of Bowlegs,
his sister Lucy and Lucy’s daughters, Anna and Ada,
appeared on a number of postcards published by various
publishing houses.
The History Center owns a glass negative taken at the
same time with a slightly different pose. A Hill photo album
recently sold on eBay contains a photograph of Billy, his sister
and his nieces walking down Second Street after their photo
session at the Hill studio.
The Cow Creek Seminoles produced not only the leaders
of today’s Brighton Reservation, but those in today’s
THURLOW COLLECTION
Pennsylvanian Perry Corell, a professional photographer, joined Hill in
business for several years and undoubtedly helped him develop skills as
a photographer. Corell took this photograph, which bears his name at the
bottom right, of an early 1900s roadway.
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