Kindly Mirrors

Kindly Mirrors showcases photographs taken by Richard ‘Dick’ Shank and his wife Gertrue Vest Shank between 1912 and 1917. The original camera was a gift to Gertrue from her brother Cleo, possibly before her 1913 marriage to Dick. During this time period, the introduction of the inexpensive Kodak Brownie box camera made photography a popular pastime nationwide, although amateur photographers were still uncommon in Floyd County. Among the 160 negatives preserved by generations of the Shank family are scenes from the farm Dick and Gertrue were renting in Floyd, as well as the Shank and Vest farms in the Stonewall and Flint communities, Little River District of Floyd County. The subjects of these images, family, farm life, and neighbors, are typical of rural America in the 1910s, and are a remarkable snapshot of one family's life during America's pivotal years surrounding World War I. The landscapes, daily chores, social gatherings, and quiet family moments captured on Gertrue's Brownie 2A offer a unique view into the moments that mattered most to those in rural Appalachia.