On Oct. 27, 1960, the Grants Pass Daily Courier publisher Amos Voorhies died at the age of 87, leaving behind thousands of rare photographs documenting life in Josephine County.
Many images were lost, destroyed or thrown away.
That is until decades later when retired history teacher and photographer Lloyd Smith discovered a box of Voorhies’ glass plate negatives at a garage sale.
Voorhies had spent nearly seven decades working in newspapers. For most of that time he traveled through Josephine County by horseback carrying a camera and taking photographs.
The images provide a rare glimpse into everyday life in rural Southern Oregon.
The photographs include everything from studio portraits to candid family gatherings. People pose with pets, farm animals, early automobiles and bicycles. They smile, laugh and mug for the camera at a time when most photography was stiff and formal.
After discovering the box of glass plate negatives, Smith tracked down as many Voorhies images as he could, along with other collections from photographers in the region.
Today, the Lloyd Smith Collection includes over 7,000 historical images, most from Southern Oregon.
He spent years carefully scanning the images and documenting any information he could find.
Smith has posted most of those images online. His site states, “They had film and a camera so we can now take a look at how they lived at the turn of the century.”
Watch the full “Oregon Experience” documentary “Capturing Oregon’s Frontier,” which originally aired in April 2013.