Nathan S. Wales glass-plate negative collection

Description

This collection is comprised of 312 glass plate negatives that were created by Nathan S. Wales circa 1900-1915. The negatives were primarily captured in three towns in Massachusetts: Bellingham, Oak Bluffs, and Plainville. They show slices of life in these towns at the beginning of the 20th century. Subjects include group portraits, landscapes, street scenes, and people taking part in various recreational activities. Many of the plates taken in Plainville, MA show the Whiting & Davis Company factory and the people who were employed there.

Each negative came in a negative sleeve, on which was listed a negative number and a brief caption of the image. The order of the negatives has been maintained based on the original negative numbers. The original captions have been modified based on the legibility of Wales' handwriting and identification of some of the features found in the images. In Summer 2021, members of the Plainville Historical Commission assisted with identifying some of the people and locations from the negatives taken in Plainville, Mass.

This collection of negatives was purchased at auction as three individual lots. Other negatives by Wales available for purchase at the same auction were of other Massachusetts towns that he had photographed, including Foxboro, Franklin, Marstons Mills, Medway, Milford, Sheldonville, St. Johns, Upton, and Wrentham. These were purchased by other historical societies across Massachusetts. No other information regarding the provenance of these negatives is known.