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Moments in time
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| Three generations
of Allen photographers: John (from left), J. C. and Chester. |
J. C. chronicled the earliest Extension activities
around the state, including farmers’ institutes and
educational trains, and, in the process, created a lasting
historic record. Purdue was quick to capitalize on his talent,
incorporating his photos into early Agricultural Experiment
Station publications, then called "circulars." One
example was the 112-page Extension circular No. 29, Livestock
Judging for Beginners, which included more than 100 pictures
taken by J. C. It was used at Purdue and county events and
also sold to Extension and animal husbandry departments at
land-grant universities around the United States.
As J. C.’s file of photographs expanded,
so did recognition of his work. He was not only providing
an account of the daily activities of the College of Agriculture
but the entire University as well. His photos are among those
documenting the career of legendary aviator Amelia
Earhart, a lecturer and consultant at Purdue for two
years before her mysterious disap-pearance in 1937 during
an attempt to fly around the world, and construction of campus
landmarks that included the Purdue Memorial Union, Ross-Ade
Stadium and the Purdue
Airport.
Word soon spread beyond the West Lafayette
campus and early agricultural publications like Breeder’s
Gazette and Orange Judd Farmer were clamoring for J. C.’s
work. "At that time, publications were just text with
a few illustrations," John says. "Photographs were
a rare commodity." His pictures became staples in farm
magazines like Prairie Farmer, Successful Farming and Farm
Journal.
J. C., too, was spreading his wings and
traveling not only around the Midwest but the entire country,
using his cameras to capture all aspects of life in rural
America. "He loved to travel; he would just set off
down the road," John says. Driving one of the big, open
sedans he favored, J. C. became a familiar face on farms
as he followed individual families and work crews through
their daily routines. "He loved the people that he met,
and they welcomed him with open arms. He always made sure
that the people he photographed got a copy of the photo."
Though he traveled the country, J. C. always
returned to Purdue, whether it was to his basement office
in the Agricultural Experiment Station or his hilltop home
overlooking campus. Built in the late 1920s, the house was
designed with a detached wing for photo storage, as J. C.’s
burgeoning photo files would no longer fit into his Purdue
office. Today, the J. C. Allen & Son archives encompass
some 77,000 subjects and cover all 50 states.
J. C.’s son, Chester, followed in his
father’s footsteps (married life would take daughter
Martha away from her hometown). While a Purdue student, Chester
was a photographer and writer for both the Exponent student
newspaper and the Debris yearbook. When he graduated in 1929
with a bachelor’s degree in horticultural sciences,
Chester went to work in his father’s office and was
a freelance writer/photographer for newspapers and farm magazines.
He was also a pioneer sports photojournalist; his credits
include the first 16mm movies of Purdue football games, which
became a part of the earliest televised broadcasts of college
football.
"They (J. C. and Chester) had a good
eye for art and composition," remembers Horace "Ace" Tyler,
who began working in Purdue’s agricultural information
office in 1951. "They would wait until the sun was right,
an animal looked the right way or a person had the right
expression on their face. They shot for keeps."
Moments in time
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