Thomas Jefferson Cronise was born on October 11, 1853 in Peru, Ill. to
Henry and Louise Hosmer Cronise. The family later moved to Seville, Oh., and
when Thomas was fourteen, he apprenticed as a printer with newspaper owner John
Clark in Wadsworth, Oh. and later worked for newspapers in Seville and York,
Oh. In 1875, Thomas’ older brother, Harry H. Cronise, moved to Oregon. Five
years later, Thomas followed his brother west and moved to Spokane, Wash.,
later moving to Salem, Or. in 1882. He first worked in Salem for a printing
business owned by Mrs. A. L. Stinson and later for R. J. Hendricks, owner of
the
In 1884, Thomas Jefferson Cronise married Nellie Riggs, daughter of Oregon pioneers Rufus and Evelyn Nicklin Riggs. By 1886, Thomas operated his own print shop in Salem in the State Insurance Building on Commercial Street, and from 1891-1893, he partnered with Gaylord W. Cooke in a commercial printing firm. However, due to an allergy to printer’s ink, Thomas eventually ended his career as a printer and took up photography. In 1893, he joined his sister, Anna Louise, who had moved from Ohio to Salem the year before, at her photography studio at the corner of State and High Streets, and the two advertised themselves as “Cronise & Cronise, The Photographers.”
In 1893, Anna Louise Cronise married Howard D. Trover, a photographer who worked in the Cronise & Cronise studio. After that year, Thomas Jefferson Cronise left the partnership, and Anna and Howard continued to operate the business as Cronise Photo Studio. Thomas did not pursue photography again until 1902, when he opened the Tom Cronise Photo Studio in the Bush-Brey Building at Commercial and Court in Salem; to avoid confusion, Anna and Howard Trover renamed their studio in 1907 as the Trover-Cronise Photo Studio. The location for Thomas' new studio was one used previously by other influential Salem photographers, including William P. Johnson; portrait photographer Myra E. Sperry, also known as “Sperry the Artist"; and Preston M. Hart and Martha F. McLennon's Elite Studio.
Thomas Jefferson Cronise died in 1927, and his youngest son, Harold ("Harry") W. Cronise, helped Nellie Cronise run the business for the next few years. In 1930, Harry Cronise assumed sole ownership of Cronise Photo Studio. He ran the business until circa 1973.
The collection consists mostly of financial ledgers, correspondence, advertising material, photo notebooks and formulas, and other business records kept by the Cronise Photo Studio from 1902-1973. These records also include printed material about photography used by the studio, including published instructions and formulas, equipment catalogs and advertisements, photomechanical examples of portrait photography, and two serial journals about photography. Additionally, there are some photographs taken by the Cronise Photo Studio included in the business records.
The collection also contains business records documenting Thomas Jefferson Cronise's previous career as a printer, as well as financial ledgers belonging to two unidentified printers in Salem. Harold W. Cronise's personal papers are also represented, including a set of six notebooks on the art of photography kept while he was enrolled at the Eastman School of Professional Photography, circa 1914. Additionally, there is one photo order ledger kept by photographer Myra E. Sperry from 1892-1894, and other papers, business advertisements, and catalogs not relating to photography that were kept by the Cronises.
This collection is arranged into the following series:
The collection is open to the public.
The Oregon Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library prior to any use of reproductions. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use of reproductions may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright holders.
Cronise Studio Records, Mss 2692, Oregon Historical Society Research Library
Library accession no. 16715.
For more information on the Cronise Studio, see
The Oregon Historical Society Research Library also holds the Cronise photographs collection (Org. Lot 1). Reproductions of all of the photographs in that collection are available in the photo card files in the Library.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Arranged into three subseries: Financial ledgers; Other business records; and Printed material about photography.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
This subseries contains 23 ledgers used by the Cronise Photo Studio to keep track of accounts, bills, commissions, daily expenses, debts, photo and frame sales, and receipts from 1902-1973. Not all years are accounted for. Some of these ledgers also contain lists of negative numbers corresponding to portraits taken, as well as samples of photographic work by the studio. Loose materials from each volume have been removed and placed ina corresponding folder.
Folder 1/2 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Folder 1/4 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Includes inventory lists and business statements. Folder 1/5 contains loose material removed from the volume.
Folder 1/7 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Folder 1/9 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Folder 1/11 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Folder 2/2 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Folder 2/4 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Contains some account information. Folder 2/8 contains loose materials from volume.
Folder 3/2 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Includes financial records of frame sale, 1943-1944. Folder 3/5 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Folder 3/8 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Contains lists of negative numbers and corresponding portraits.
Contains lists of negative numbers and corresponding portraits. Folder 4/5 contains loose materials removed from volume.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
This subseries contains other, non-financial business papers relating to the day-to-day operations of the Cronise Photo Studio.
Contain formulas, accounts, and other studio notes.
Contain formulas, medical prescriptions, and photomechanical prints of portrait photography.
Contain formulas and other studio notes.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
This subseries contains articles, advertisements, catalogs, formulas, photomechanical examples of portrait photography, and other printed and published material relating to the profession of photography that were collected by the Cronises for use in their studio.
Contains copies of
Photomechanical prints pasted into a copy of
This series contains records relating to Thomas Jefferson Cronise's first career as a printer, circa 1886-1893, as well as the business records of two other, unidentified printing business in Salem, Or.
Contains examples of Cronise's printing work, both as a solo printer and in partnership as Cooke & Cronise, articles and pamphlets about printing, and studio advertising and stationary.
This series contains personal papers and ephemera kept by Harold W. Cronise that are not related to his management of the Cronise Photo Studio. Some of the material does, however, relate to his education as a photographer before he joined his father's studio in 1927.
Contains souvenir programs and tickets to events in Salem, a certificate of appreciation from the Ladd & Bush branch of the United States National Bank of Portland, research notes about "The Parsonage," and hand-written song lyrics.
Photo order book for the studio of Myra E. Sperry, known as "Sperry the Artist," containing tear-out receipts with names of clients, accounts, and types of photos ordered from 1892-1894. Probably found by Thomas Jefferson Cronise when he opened the Tom Cronise Photo Studio in the Bush-Brey Building at Commercial and Court in Salem, Or., the space where Sperry's studio was previously located.
This series contains other papers and documents in the collection that are not apparently related to the profession of photography, the operations of the Cronise Photo Studio, or to the personal lives of Thomas Jefferson Cronise and Harry W. Cronise.
Contains two receipts for property valuation made out to W. W. Irvin of Oregon City, Or. in 1882; a hand-written receipt for medical goods dated 1867; an undated recipe for currant brandy; and hand-written hymn lyrics