Early 20th Century Convergence of Opportunity and Technology Result in Historic Grand Canyon Photographs
On Tuesday, August 11 2026, Christopher and Tom Thompson presented “Early 20th Century Convergence of Opportunity and Technology Result in Historic Grand Canyon Photographs”
Lucy Burrows Morley was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1871. In 1908 she visited the Grand Canyon where she took a photograph from the South Rim with a new and emerging technology – a Kodak Brownie camera. This presentation will discuss how economic opportunity, cultural changes, and technological developments converged to produce one of the first amateur photographs of tourists overlooking the Grand Canyon.
Richard (Tom) Thomson has a PhD in Microbiology with postdoctoral training in Medical Microbiology, Public Health and Laboratory Medicine. He recently retired as Director of Laboratory Medicine, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, Illinois, and Clinical Professor of Pathology at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. His interest in history and the Grand Canyon was helped by his background in science, his tenure as Board Member of The History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff and 15 years of winter visits to Arizona.
Christopher C. Thomson has a BA in Fine Art Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He received a grant in 1976 to restore, duplicate and preserve the Lucy Burrows Morley cellulose nitrate negatives, followed by a show of the LBM collection at the George Eastman House Museum. Portions of the LBM collection have been shown at the Castle Museum, Saginaw, MI, the Interlochen School, Interlochen, MI, and the Ann Arbor Library, Ann Arbor MI. Approximately 50 LBM images have been accepted into the George Eastman House Museum permanent collection.