Mormon Temple Block, Salt Lake, Utah
Salt Lake City: The Johnson Company, (c.1896). Cabinet card. Albumen photograph [10 cm x 13 cm] / [4" x 5"] on a dark gray mount [18 cm x 20 cm] / [7" x 8"] Johnson blind stamp at the lower right corner of the mount. Minor wear to the upper left corner of the mount. Title in the negative. Item #8070
View of the Temple Block with the Brigham Young Monument at the intersection of Main and South Temple. Forty years of effort and sacrifice to build the Salt Lake Temple concluded on April 6, 1893, the last day of the Church's annual conference, when President Wilford Woodruff dedicated the edifice. The Associated Press carried news of the dedication over its wire service, and newspapers from the New York Times on the East Coast to the Los Angeles Times on the West Coast ran stories about the completion of Mormonism's most important symbol.
Charles Ellis Johnson (1857-1926) was a Mormon photographer known for his work both in Utah and around the world. He grew up in St. George, Utah, and gained an interest in botany and theater. While operating a drug store in Salt Lake City, he started dabbling in photography and opened a photo studio. He photographed actors and actresses at the Salt Lake Theater, including some artistic nudes. He took photos of Utah attractions, and in 1903 traveled through the Ottoman Empire to take photos for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. In 1917 Johnson moved to San Jose, California where he continued operating a photo studio.
"Johnson was one of the most prolific and enterprising photographers on the Mormon scene. He photographed thousands of people in his modern state-of-the-art studio in Salt Lake City." - Nelson Wadsworth 'Set in Stone Fixed in Glass' (pg. 274).
Price: $150.00