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Moments in time
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| Perched atop her Purdue-purchased
plane with two of her students, Amelia Earhart (center)
was often photographed by J. C. Allen. Earhart spent
the two years prior to her ill-fated around-the-world
flight at Purdue as a visiting instructor and consultant. |
"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."
When John officially joined the family business
in 1967, after serving a hitch in the Navy and earning a
bachelor's degree in agricultural economics from Purdue,
he had already spent his youth in apprenticeship. He recalls
those early days: "When my grandfather would be out
taking pictures of cattle, the cattle were not always where
they needed to be," John says. "Often, they would
be going in the opposite direction of the camera. My job
was to drive the cattle toward the camera." John also
remembers lugging the cumbersome equipment around during
hot August days at the Indiana
State Fair, which his grandfather photographed for 35
years, and running the print dryer after school for 15 cents
an hour. "It was a labor-intensive process," John
says.
Although J. C. retired in 1952 at age 71,
he continued to take pictures for nearly another quarter
century until his death in 1976 at age 94. Chester, too,
continued to work until shortly before his death in 1996
at age 89.
While J. C. recorded our early agricultural
history, John has become a keeper of it. As a third-generation
photographer, he not only carries on the family business
but manages nearly a century of work and faithfully preserves
his grandfather's early cameras, equipment and ledgers.
Just as it was in his heyday, J. C.'s
work is in great demand. Reiman Publications, which includes
such magazines as Country, Country Woman, Farm & Ranch
Living and Reminisce, frequently prints his work as does
Western Horseman and Draft Horse Journal. Photos are included
in exhibits at a number of national and regional agricultural
museums, including a new U.S.
Department of Agriculture museum in Fort Collins, Colo.
His work is also being preserved at the Center
for Agricultural Science & Heritage, which is housed
in a historic, restored dairy barn across from the Indiana
State Fairgrounds.
J. C. Allen & Son photos are included
in numerous coffee-table books commemorating early 20th-century
agriculture, vintage tractors and family life on the farm.
Three volumes of Allen photos have been
published. The most recent, Pictures
from the Farm, for which John wrote the text, was released
in 2001. Two previous books, Farming Comes of Age, by Chester
Allen and Farming Once Upon a Time, by Tomm Budd and Claude
L. Brock, were published in the mid 1990s.
In retrospect, J. C.'s work remains
one of the most comprehensive bodies of work documenting
American agriculture in the early 20th century and its transition
into the technological age.
In the 1970s, J. C. presented some 20,000
prints, negatives and glass plates to Purdue as a gesture
of regard for the university where he had spent so much of
his adult life.
Purdue Agriculture is in the process of creating
a display that will showcase the history of agriculture in
Indiana and at Purdue. "J. C. Allen's photos will
be a central part of the exhibit," says Donya Lester,
executive secretary of the Purdue
Agricultural Alumni Association, who is coordinating
the project. "The display also will recognize J. C.'s
contribution in documenting agricultural history."
Fittingly, the exhibit will be housed in
the David
C. Pfendler Hall of Agriculture, which is currently undergoing
renovation. The 101-year-old building—and original Agricultural
Hall—was renamed earlier this year in honor of Pfendler.
When the building reopens next year, the two former colleagues
and friends, as well as important figures in Purdue Agriculture
history, will be back together again.
Photos
courtesy J. C. Allen & Son Inc.
Moments in time
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