[Interior view of the Chicago Botanical Gardens]
Photograph
[Interior view of the Chicago Botanical Gardens]
From the album [Snapshots from travels in the United States and Canada]
1921 - 1925
Gelatin silver prints
Overall: 4 5/16 × 2 5/8 in. (10.9 × 6.6 cm)
Gift of the 3M Foundation, ex-collection Louis Walton Sipley, 1977
1978.1292.0070b
Inscriptions Typed in ink on slip of paper placed behind photograph: Interior of one of the end sections of the main building, Botanical Gardens, Chicago, Ill. Taken by A. Thomas Nelson 1921-1925. Mr. Nelson was taken by an intimate boyhood friend in the advertising buisness, William E. (and Mrs.) Armstrong on a Sunday afternoon when in Chicago for a few days for the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the M.E. Church, Phila., Pa. On this trip A.T. had such a large comfortable hotel room that he planned to take Mrs. Nelson with him on the next trip, but there was no "next time." Just prior to 1957 "Bill" retired to Orlando, Fla.
As a young man Mr. Nelson first went to Chicago Art Inst. to study illustration and to Moody Bible Inst. for their course, then was with the Ohio State Sunday School Tour party for over two years, this latter headed by Dr. H.A. Dowling. He carried a portable roll belt "blackboard" for the chalk talks he gave with the tour party and used it all his life a great deal, sometimes almost constantly. He used expensive 1" square by 3" long lecturer's crayon which one had to learn to use. He talked while he drew, but always (while both must be tops and he put much time on them) the lesson taught must have precedence over the drawing. While on the road he used two belts, one to be sent in and sized for tooth (to hold the chalk) and before one got too smooth, while he used the other belt. When facing the "board" talking, he turned on twice the voice volumn. When with the Tour Party, Dr. Doweling liked to put him in charge of the round table. The ministers would ask not only difficult but sometimes trick questions when it delighted Doweling to see "the young squirt" take them down. The party held a convention, one day in a place in every county in Ohio: grueling work with day and evening sessions. Mr. Nelson was later employed in Cook County, (Chicago) - so knew Chicago very well. He did work at Cook Co. Jail.
For all Mr. Nelson was a first rate portrait photographer, having learned the profession with H.A. Mowrey, - "All Mowrey" - or "Ham" as he often signed, and a first class commercial man as well, having had his own studio before he had his commercial dark room and office in the Wesley Bldg., 17th & Arch Sts., Phila., Pa. he really liked the Tour Party work with drawing and lecturing in "chalk-talk" work the better. For this reason he stood the more grueling work better, even though he did sleep the clock around once when getting home.
As a young man Mr. Nelson first went to Chicago Art Inst. to study illustration and to Moody Bible Inst. for their course, then was with the Ohio State Sunday School Tour party for over two years, this latter headed by Dr. H.A. Dowling. He carried a portable roll belt "blackboard" for the chalk talks he gave with the tour party and used it all his life a great deal, sometimes almost constantly. He used expensive 1" square by 3" long lecturer's crayon which one had to learn to use. He talked while he drew, but always (while both must be tops and he put much time on them) the lesson taught must have precedence over the drawing. While on the road he used two belts, one to be sent in and sized for tooth (to hold the chalk) and before one got too smooth, while he used the other belt. When facing the "board" talking, he turned on twice the voice volumn. When with the Tour Party, Dr. Doweling liked to put him in charge of the round table. The ministers would ask not only difficult but sometimes trick questions when it delighted Doweling to see "the young squirt" take them down. The party held a convention, one day in a place in every county in Ohio: grueling work with day and evening sessions. Mr. Nelson was later employed in Cook County, (Chicago) - so knew Chicago very well. He did work at Cook Co. Jail.
For all Mr. Nelson was a first rate portrait photographer, having learned the profession with H.A. Mowrey, - "All Mowrey" - or "Ham" as he often signed, and a first class commercial man as well, having had his own studio before he had his commercial dark room and office in the Wesley Bldg., 17th & Arch Sts., Phila., Pa. he really liked the Tour Party work with drawing and lecturing in "chalk-talk" work the better. For this reason he stood the more grueling work better, even though he did sleep the clock around once when getting home.
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