Customer Reviews

Our Town on the Plains: J.J. Pennell's Photographs of Junction City, Kansas, 1893-1922

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I love books like this that give a peek into bygone lives. Having grown up in Kansas, I found it particularly fascinating as it probably parallels my hometown's development (just different faces and buildings).
Here's an interview with the author from the University of Kansas' "OREAD":
Shortridge said looking at the photographs was similar to reading a novel, providing a detailed look at small-town life during the turn of the century.

"This is an opportunity to get a fairly intimate view of an experience that is in all of our pasts, captured in a very different way," he said.

In order to provide an accurate and in-depth description of the places and events photographed, Shortridge went to the archives of the Junction City Union newspaper.

"You could really make the picture come alive, because you had a newspaper reporter telling you about the context of the photo," he said. "You were able to get that richness that you might not have otherwise had."

Although Pennell captured a wide range of life in Junction City, Shortridge cautions readers about the limits of the collection.

"Pennell was middle class and male, and the world he photographed was biased toward those kinds of people," he said. "There are aspects of the society that didn't get photographed as often."

Shortridge's favorite photograph was taken the year the automobile debuted in Junction City.

"It's a photograph of a 1905 Cadillac all decked out in tissue paper and four people dressed in finery, with smiles on their faces that say all is right with the world," he said. "You get a sense that people felt very much in control of their own destiny."