Walter S. Bowman was born February 8, 1865, to Henry and Elizabeth (Owens) Bowman.[7] His birthplace may have been where the family lived by Birch Creek, Oregon.[2]
Career
Bowman began his photography studies under T.C. Ward in 1887 and purchased Ward's studio in 1890. Bowman worked in Pendleton from the late 1880s to the mid-1930s documenting life in Eastern Oregon[2] including at events such as the Pendleton Round-Up[8] and workers at the Pendleton Woolen Mills.[9] Bowman was a member of the Pendleton Camera Club and knew O.C. Allen and Lee Moorhouse (who he seems to have taken under his wing). Moorhouse lived with the Bowman family upon his arrival in Pendleton[2] and captured an image of Bowman's studio along the Umatilla River at 916 Main Street.[10] Bowman was considered Pendleton's "premier photographer" until his retirement in the mid-1930s. His studio was on the banks of the Umatilla River.[2]
Florence Bowman Windsor remembered Bowman owning the first car in Pendleton (it may have been a Maxwell) and his arrest for driving twelve miles an hour down Main Street. Bowman died in 1938 after crashed his car off an icy road embankment about 10 miles east of Pendleton; his wife was also injured.[1][2]
Bowman's wife Eugenia (Ellenberger) bowman died December 5, 1954, at St. Anthony's Hospital. after an illness of 17 days. She lived in Pendleton from 1901 and was born in Berne, Switzerland. She moved to Umatilla County at 13 and lived in Pilot Rock, Oregon, with her mother Fritz Ellenberger. She married Walter in 1934.[11] He was an avid hunter.[7]
University of Oregon collection
The University of Oregon collection includes 385 glass-plate negatives, 17 nitrate negatives, 35 cellulose acetate negatives, 7 safety negatives (replacing nitrate originals), and 338 vintage and modern silver gelatin photoprints. Twelve of the prints are on Bowman's studio mounts and another twelve are postcards.[2] The university's collection of Bowman photographs includes images donated to the library from 1947 to 1953 through the efforts of Umatilla County Court Judge James H. Sturgis and Lee D. Drake, a Pendleton newspaperman, county clerk, and collector of historic materials.[12] Drake was a partner in the East Oregonian Publishing Co. and head of the Old Oregon Trail Committee of Umatilla County. Drake collected negatives he deemed worthwhile and destroyed some 900 others.[2]
The collection includes images of early automobiles and their owners in Pendleton, including a delivery of Ford roadsters by railcar to the city.[2] Images of the Pendleton Woolen Mills are also featured.[2]
