J.P. Doremus
n.d.
No. 62 River drivers at dinner
[Mississippi Views]

Stereoview, oversized
Cowan's Auctions, Inc
Wes Cowan Stereoview Auction, 30 March 2015, Lot: 122
 
Oversized orange cabinet sized mount with imprint of J.P Doremus, Patterson, N.J showing his floating studio, titled on the verso label No. 62 River drivers at dinner. A description of the series is imprinted on verso: The subscriber has built a Floating Photograph Gallery, at a cost , with its appurtenances, of over $5,000, intending to take views of the Mississippi and its tributaries, from the Falls of St. Anthony to the Gulf of Mexico.
 
Though not labeled as such, this is a crew of responsible for navigating "rafts" of logs to a saw mill on the Upper Mississippi. Doremus apparently made six negatives of the drive, each listed on the verso of the mount. Undoubtedly Doremus was familiar with H.H. Bennett's "Life of a Raftsman" series which documented huge log drives in Wisconsin, and was attempting to develop his own market. A rare view by a New Jersey photographer with itchy feet and an urge to roam.
 
LL/58637