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WILLIAM HENRY SMITH MEMORIAL LIBRARY

W. H. Bass Photo Company Collection

The W. H. Bass Photo Company Collection comprises approximately 200,000 items, including more than 144,000 black-and-white negatives and 20,000 photographic prints. Perhaps the company's 1906 city directory advertisement best describes the surviving collection: "Photos of Any Thing, Any Where, Any Time." It is by far the most heavily used visual collection in the IHS Library.

Access to the collection

IHS maintained the original order of the photographic prints, which Bass Photo arranged by a series of subject headings that they created. A summary of the folder headings follows the historical sketch below. ArchIE, an in-house computer database that indexes architectural material in several visual and architectural collections, contains references to Bass Photo photographic prints depicting architectural structures. Another separate in-house computer database contains an item-level inventory of the entire collection of black-and-white negatives. Researchers may also consult Bass Photo's numerical index, which is essentially chronological, and client index.

Browse All Bass Photo Company Digital Images

An Historical Sketch of the W. H. Bass Photo Company

Commonly known as Bass Photo, the firm traces its beginnings to 1897. The James Bayne Company, a photographic firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, opened a satellite operation in Indianapolis at 308-310 South New Jersey Street. The company advertised itself as commercial photographers, specializing in "Furniture, Machinery, Harness, Caskets, Mantels, Etc." and "Fine View Work"; and as both engravers using "all known processes" and printers of "fine catalogues." The principle purpose of the business was presumably to control the entire process of generating furniture trade catalogs, from photographing to printing. They also provided more general services to augment their income.

The enterprise failed. In 1899 two photographers acquired the company: Walter T. Woodworth and William H. Bass. Woodworth had been a photographer with The James Bayne Company. Bass, an instructor at the city's Industrial Training School, had been an independent photographer in 1894, and a high school teacher the previous five years.

The photographers operated the business under the name Woodworth and Company. By 1901, however, the proprietors changed the company's name to Bass and Woodworth Company. They worked together until 1905 when Woodworth left to start his own company. At was at this time that Bass established the W. H. Bass Photo Company.

Bass remained the sole proprietor of Bass Photo until it incorporated in 1912. His protégé, Charles C. Branson, who started with Woodworth and Company in 1901 as an opaquer and was photographing by 1902, became president. Branson became sole owner upon the death of Mr. Bass in 1936. It has remained a family business since that time. Ted Abel became an accountant for the company in 1939 and, having married Branson's daughter a few years earlier, bought a two-thirds interest in the company. Ted's brother Frederick entered the business in 1963, and the current owner, Gerald Abel, is Ted's son.

Summary List of Folder Headings for Bass Photo Co. Collection

Aerial Views: 16 folders
Airports and Airplanes: 2 folders
Animals: 4 folders
Apartments: 9 folders
Art Schools: 2 folders
Artwork: 1 folder
Automobiles: 7 folders
Automobiles - Showrooms, Sales Offices, Plants: 3 folders
Ayres, F.M. Estate: 1 folder
Banks: 10 folders
Bicycles: 1 folder
Boats: 1 folder
Bridges: 8 folders
Brown County: 1 folder
Buildings: 133 folders
Buildings, Industrial: 2 folders
Buses: 2 folders
Canals: 2 folders
Cemeteries: 2 folders
Churches: 18 folders
Civil War: 1 folder
Clark, George Rogers - Memorials: 1 folder
Clouds: 1 folder
Clubs and Lodges: 10 folders
Clubs and Lodges - Independent Athletic Club - Hoosier Athletic Club: 1 folder
Colleges and Universities: 10 folders
Construction: 1 folder
Courthouses: 2 folders
Crowds: 5 folders
Crown Hill Cemetery: 1 folder
Dams: 1 folder
Eli Lilly and Co.: 1 folder
Farm Views: 5 folders
Farmer's Market: 1 folder
Filling Stations: 1 folder
Fire Stations: 3 folders
Firemen and Fire Equipment: 2 folders
Fires: 5 folders
Fireworks: 1 folder
Floods: 5 folders
Florida: 1 folder
Flowers: 2 folders
Food: 1 folder
Fort Benjamin Harrison: 1 folder
Fort Harrison - Terre Haute: 1 folder
Fruit : 1 folder
Funerals: 1 folder
Garages, Parking: 2 folders
Golf Courses: 1 folder
Government Buildings: 7 folders
Govt. Buildings - Interior: 1 folder Sonja Henie: 3 folders
Historical Markers: 1 folder
Hockey Players - Indianapolis Capitols: 9 folders
Hospitals: 9 folders
Hotels: 12 folders
Hotels - Claypool Hotel: 1 folder
Hotels - English Hotel: 1 folder
Hotels - Marott Hotel: 3 folders
Hunting and Fishing : 1 folder
Indianapolis 500 6 folders
Indianapolis Home Show 1 folder
Indianapolis Indians - Baseball Team and Bush Stadium 1 folder
Indianapolis Neighborhoods - Brendonwood 1 folder
Interurban Railroads 2 folders
Laundries 1 folder
Libraries 4 folders
Libraries - Indianapolis - Marion County - Main Branch - Interiors 1 folder
Lilly, Josiah K. Estate - Apple Orchard 1 folder
Manuscripts 1 folder
Maps - Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio 1 folder
Monument Circle 15 folders
Monuments and Memorials 3 folders
Nature Views 5 folders
Night Scenes 2 folders
Non-United States 1 folder
Noyes, N.H. Estate 8 folders
Old Etchings 2 folders
Old Etchings - Indianapolis 3 folders
Parades 9 folders
Parks 13 folders
People 7 folders
Police Stations 1 folder
Policemen 1 folder
Printed Material 2 folders
Printing Companies and Publishers 2 folders
Prisons 1 folder
Prominent People 8 folders
Prominent People - Harrison, Benjamin and William 2 folders
Prominent People - Lincoln, Abraham 1 folder
Prominent People - Riley, James Whitcomb 2 folders
Public Utilities 6 folders
Railroad and Interurban Tracks 1 folder
Railroads 8 folders
Railroad Bridges 1 folder
Railroads - Illinois Central Railroad - Engines 1 folder
Railroads - Illinois Central Railroad - Pullman Accommodations 2 folders
Railroads - Illinois Central Railroad - Railroad Fair 1948-1949 2 folders
Railroads - Illinois Central Railroad - Publicity 2 folders
Residences 32 folders
Schools 20 folders
Schools - Cathedral High School - Shortridge High School 2 folders
Schools - Ladywood High School - Stroughton Fletcher Estate 6 folders
Schrader, Christian - Drawings 2 folders
Scottish Rite Cathedral 9 folders
State and City Institutions 1 folder
State Fair 5 folders
Stockyards 2 folders
Street Scenes 29 folders
Streetcars 11 folders
Swimming Pools 2 folders
Theaters 8 folders
Theaters - Circle Theater - Exterior 2 folders
Theaters - Circle Theater - Interior 2 folders
Theaters - Indiana Theater - Exterior 2 folders
Theaters - Indiana Theater - Interior 1 folder
Thorntown, Indiana - Centennial 1 folder
Tornadoes and Storms 5 folders
Towers - Radio, TV, etc. 1 folder
Traction Railroads 12 folders
Train Wrecks 1 folder
Trains 10 folders
Trains - Interiors 1 folder
Trees and Plants 1 folder
Trucks 1 folder
Union Station - Indianapolis 7 folders
United States Government 1 folder
Wagons 2 folders
War Interests 17 folders
War Memorial - Indiana World War Memorial 6 folders
War Memorial - Interiors-Indiana World War Memorial 4 folders
Warehouses 1 folder
Watertowers 1 folder
Woodruff Place 2 folders
YMCA 1 folder

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