Harris & Ewing

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Photographic studio in Washington, D.C., United States

title: "Harris & Ewing" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["photography-in-the-united-states", "library-of-congress", "american-companies-established-in-1905", "mass-media-companies-established-in-1905", "1905-establishments-in-washington,-d.c.", "mass-media-companies-disestablished-in-1977", "1977-disestablishments-in-washington,-d.c."] description: "Photographic studio in Washington, D.C., United States" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris_&_Ewing" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Photographic studio in Washington, D.C., United States ::

|total_width=400 |image1=HARRIS, G.W. LCCN2016856282.jpg |caption1=George W. Harris |image2=Martha Ewing (1870-1959) circa 1905.png |caption2=Martha Ewing Harris & Ewing Inc. was a photographic studio in Washington, D.C. established by George W. Harris and Martha Ewing. As a full service studio, it did portraits and also had a news photo service. Various museums and the Library of Congress have collections of their photographs.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Gustav_Cramer_and_George_William_Harris.jpg" caption="1908}}"] ::

As a rookie news photographer, G. W. Harris covered the Johnstown flood of 1889 in Pennsylvania. He worked at Hearst News Service in San Francisco from 1900 to 1903, then joined President Theodore Roosevelt's press entourage on a train trip. Roosevelt, or a San Francisco newspaper editor, angry at having no photograph of George Frisbie Hoar to run with the story of his death, urged him to open a studio in Washington D.C. Harris and Martha Ewing opened their studio in 1905 at 1313 F Street NW. Ewing, an artist and colorist with whom he had worked, They replaced the building with a new Harris & Ewing Photographic Studio building in 1924.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/H_&_E_photographer_LOC_hec.13472.jpg" caption="Unidentified Harris & Ewing news photographer"] ::

By the late 1930s Harris & Ewing was the largest photographic studio in the United States; at its peak, it had five studios, 120 employees, and a news photo service, which, like Underwood & Underwood, employed large numbers of freelance photographers. Although it was particularly known for formal portraits of government figures, it was a full service photographic firm.

The studio became well known in 1908 with The Anatomy of a Smile, a series of candid shots of William Howard Taft receiving the news by telephone of his nomination for the Presidency. Many performers also sat for portraits with the firm. Harris was the primary photographer until 1955, when he retired. He bought out Ewing's share of the company in 1915, but she continued to assist, especially through her social connections. The news service was sold in 1945. Harris died in 1964 at age 92. Harris & Ewing closed in 1977.

Legacy

On his retirement, Harris gave some 700,000 glass and film negatives to the Library of Congress. Largely taken in and around Washington between 1905 and 1945, the photos portray people, events, and architecture. Many are scanned and online.

References

References

  1. Livingston, Michael. (November 13, 2000). "Harris & Ewing studio was photographer to presidents". [[American City Business Journals.
  2. Kelly, John. (October 15, 2006). "Answer Man on D.C.'s Photographer to the Stars". [[The Washington Post]].
  3. Shields, David S.. "Harris and Ewing".
  4. "District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites". DC Preservation.
  5. "Harris & Ewing Collection".
  6. Livingston, Michael. (November 13, 2000). "Harris & Ewing Collection". [[Library of Congress]].
  7. "PPA Award recipients 1951–2011". [[Professional Photographers of America]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

photography-in-the-united-stateslibrary-of-congressamerican-companies-established-in-1905mass-media-companies-established-in-19051905-establishments-in-washington,-d.c.mass-media-companies-disestablished-in-19771977-disestablishments-in-washington,-d.c.