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Artist/Maker
Silvia Saunders
(American, 1901 - 1994)
Datec. 1931-1937
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsComposition: 4 3/8 × 6 3/16 in. (11.1 × 15.7 cm)
Sheet: 4 13/16 × 6 7/16 in. (12.2 × 16.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Edward W. Root, W1905, P1944, H1952
Object number1969.5.3
Not on view
DescriptionSilvia Saunders left her commercial photography career in New York City after the stock market crash of 1929 and returned to her hometown of Clinton to wait out the nation’s financial crisis for the next few years. During this period, she traveled locally with her 5x7 Eastman camera equipment and tripod to capture “countryside impressions” of nature and aging architecture. County fairs were a tradition for the Saunders family, as the artist’s mother, Dr. Louise Brownell Saunders, showed Scottish terriers at the Oneida County Fair as early as 1910. The County Fairs series is a social record of local people and their animals during the Great Depression. While the depicted fairs are unidentified, they likely occurred within a radius of Clinton on privately owned land, as the local government was unable to subsidize the Oneida County Fairgrounds in Rome after 1928 due to the impact of the recession.
Collections
Additional Details
Alternate Titles
Untitled from the "Country Fair" series
Exhibition History
2024-2025
Clinton, NY. The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum," September 7, 2024 –June 8, 2025 (no cat.).
Work exhibited in second rotation only, Spring 2025 semester.
2007
Clinton, NY, Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College. "Photographs by Silvia Saunders," June 21 - September 16, 2007 (no cat.).
Clinton, NY. The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum," September 7, 2024 –June 8, 2025 (no cat.).
Work exhibited in second rotation only, Spring 2025 semester.
2007
Clinton, NY, Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College. "Photographs by Silvia Saunders," June 21 - September 16, 2007 (no cat.).
Provenance
1969: Hamilton College by gift of Mrs. Edward W. [Grace C.] Root
Markings
Rectangular ink stamp [black] on verso at center: PHOTOGRAPH BY / SILVIA SAUNDERS / 37 EAST 28TH STREET / NEW YORK CITY
Inscribed
Inscribed in pencil on verso at center, partially underneath the artist's stamp with approximately four lines of illegible text that has been erased
Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1969.9.2
Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1969.5.6
Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1969.9.3
Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1969.7.7
Silvia Saunders
Date: 20th century
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1969.12.4
Silvia Saunders
Date: 1933
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1969.11.5
William E. Williams
Date: 1981 (published 1985)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1992.1.2
Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1969.2.1
Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print on paper
Object number: 1969.2.9
Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1969.2.5
Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print on paper
Object number: 1969.2.4
Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print on paper
Object number: 1969.2.6