Frank Henry Canaris was born in Prussia on February 4, 1854, and came to the United States with his family when he was one year old. As a young man, he spent two years in San Salvador, El Salvador, where he started a sugar plantation. He left soon after a major earthquake in 1873. In May, 1881, Canaris and his first wife, Catherine, moved to Long Beach, Washington, where he built the Harvest Home hotel, and in 1896 he built the Crystal Bathhouse. He also ran a curio and postcard store for 30 years where he sold photographic views of the beach. Canaris was the fourth postmaster at Long Beach, establishing the first money order system there, and he also served as justice of the peace, constable, and school director. Canaris was married three times. He married Catherine circa 1880, divorcing sometime in the 1890s. His second wife, Christina Canaris, died in 1923. He married his third wife, Martha Bauer Canaris, in 1925. Frank Canaris died in Long Beach at age 83 in August 1937.
Catherine Canaris was born in Minnesota around 1859. By 1880 she was married to Frank Canaris and living in the Nehalem Valley of Columbia County, Oregon. She moved with him to Long Beach, Washington, but by 1897 she was listed individually in Portland city directories. Catherine was a photographer in Portland from the mid-1890s until about 1904, working primarily from her residence. During part of that time, from about 1899 to 1901, she worked for photographer William Sandeen. Later she became a Christian Science teacher and continued to live in the Portland area until her death in 1938 at age 79.
John Wesley Tollman and his wife, Lulu, were traveling photographers who spent most of the 1890s working in towns in Washington, Oregon, and California. They often worked in short-term partnerships with other husband-and-wife photography teams. John had previously worked as a photographer in Omaha, Nebraska. He moved west in 1887 and worked briefly in Washington localities, including Olympia, Aberdeen, and South Bend. By 1891 he had settled in Long Beach, Washington. Over the years, the couple apparently split their time between northern California and Washington. By 1899 they were living in Portland, Oregon, and operating the Tollman Studio. John’s brother, Thomas W. Tollman, also a photographer, took over the studio after 1900.
From 1900-1902 John worked as a clerk at SG Skidmore & Company, a druggist and photo supply business, and Lulu worked as a retoucher and clerk at Woodard, Clarke & Co, also a druggist and photo supply business. By around 1903 the Tollmans lived in Vancouver, Washington, where John was listed as a photographer in the city directories. By 1907 Lulu was quite active in the Photographers Association of the Pacific Northwest, serving as an elected officer, attending conventions, and winning photography awards. She also wrote an article on darkroom arrangement in 1903. The couple moved to Eugene, Oregon, in 1907 and operated the Tollman Studio in Eugene until their divorce in 1909. They may already have been leading separate lives by 1908, as John is listed as a photographer in Boise, Idaho, city directories in 1908. Lulu remarried in 1909 and became Mrs. Lulu Ehrhardt. She ran the Tollman Studio with partner Catherine McHardy from 1909-1911. In late 1911 the business was sold to J.B. Anderson, who continued to run it as the Tollman Studio until 1917. Lulu moved to Vancouver, Washington, in 1911 and lived there until at least 1917.
Arranged in five series:
While Indians were the first people to utilize the abundant salmon of the Columbia River, the modern salmon industry on the river began in 1866 when brothers William and George Hume opened a small cannery at Eagle Cliff, Washington. The cannery packed 6,000 cases of 48 cans each in its first year of operation, and very quickly, that single cannery grew into a booming canning industry. The rapid development was derived from its position as an entirely new industry, one that was founded on an apparently endless supply of easily obtainable salmon. The canning industry and its investors benefited from the good prices and quick profits that could be made. Canned salmon was popular in the United States and elsewhere because it was a cheap but nourishing food. Cannery owners were particularly fond of the chinook salmon, which could weigh more than 100 pounds. Along with the popular chinook, fishermen also caught coho, chum, and sockeye salmon. Steelhead trout was also popular. In addition, fishermen caught shad, smelt, sturgeon, and crayfish. A number of devices were used to catch fish on the Columbia River including gillnets, seines, diver nets, pound nets, and fish wheels. Each was chosen based on its suitability to specific places along the river.
In 1873 there were eight canneries, and by 1883 over 50 canneries dotted the banks of the lower Columbia River and its tributaries. The number of canneries on the Columbia peaked from 1883 to 1887, but soon afterwards, the numbers dropped quite rapidly. By 1890 there were 21 canneries, and by 1935 only ten were still in operation on the Columbia River. While the number of canneries peaked in the 1880s, the actual salmon catch on the Columbia River reached its height in 1895, with 635,000 cases packed (each containing 48 one-pound cans). Home to 25 canneries, Astoria, Oregon, was at the center of the industry as well as Oregon’s second largest city for a time. Most of the salmon fishermen were from Scandinavia and Finland, and tended to work in logging and farming during the off season. There were also many Chinese fishermen.
The canning boom did not last forever. Prices began to drop because of the growing number of canneries, along with increased production and competition from supplies of cheaper fish, such as steelhead and salmon caught elsewhere. More canneries created greater competition for fish, which led to increased prices going to fishermen. In 1878 canners paid fishermen 25 cents per chinook salmon. By 1890 the price had increased to $1.00. During the same period, chinook runs became less abundant causing fears of a fish shortage; this, in turn, drove many out of the industry. By 1900 the salmon industry had shifted its focus north to the Puget Sound area and Alaska.
The collection consists of 68 photographs depicting various salmon fishing methods, including seining, gillnetting, fishwheeling, and pound netting, along the Columbia River in the 1890s. In addition, there are views of fishermen's residences and interiors and exteriors of salmon canneries. There are also views of other types of fish and shellfish as well as seals and sea lions. All locations are along the Columbia River unless otherwise noted. All photographs were apparently made by the husband-and-wife photographer teams of Tollman and Canaris.
Selections from the collection can be viewed on the Libraries Digital Collections webiste. Permission of the Visual Materials Curator is required to view original photographs. Contact Special Collections for more information.
Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact the Special Collections division of the University of Washington Libraries for details.
Tollman and Canaris Photographs. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle, Washington.
Processed by Linda Corets, 2005
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Willapa Bay was formerly known as Shoalwater Bay.
Caption on photographs: "Taking salmon out of pond net, Columbia River, Washington."
Pound boats are referred to as "pond boats" in the original captions for the photographs.
Willapa Bay was formerly known as Shoalwater Bay.