American Historical Ephemera & Photography Online

Approx. 99 silver gelatin photographs, ca late-19th to early-20th century, most mounted on cardstock, sizes vary between approx. 8 x 10 in. to 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. Many identified on the mount to photographer Rudolph Herman Scheibert, though several images may be associated with other photographers including "Tresize" and "Barrett." Conditions vary but generally good. Provenance: As per consignor, photographs purchased in central Ohio and descended in Scheibert's family.

Notable in the archive are photographs showing railroads, including a series of images of a "Miamisburg Fast Line" train car accident, ca 1897, on an electric traction railroad near Trenton, Ohio. Additional imagery includes: construction of the Soldiers & Sailors Monument Memorial at Woodside Cemetery in Middletown, Ohio, ca 1900; "The Ohio Middletown" canal boat; home, store, and studio interiors; landscapes; townscapes; factory interiors; a large water wheel; early homesteads; cultivated fields; outdoor group portraits; and public buildings. Also notable is a photograph of Rudolph Scheibert, ca 1910, in his Middletown, Ohio, studio.

Born in Trenton, Butler County, Ohio, Rudolph Herman Scheibert (1873-1965) was the son of German immigrants. While the 1900 US Federal Census identifies his occupation as "Painter Bicycle" and the 1910 US Federal Census identifies his occupation as an "Electrician," he also worked as
a professional photographer operating a studio on the corner of Fourth Street and Main Street in Middletown, Ohio, during the early 1900s. Sometime between 1910 and 1912 Scheibert removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked as a public school teacher through the 1940s. Scheibert was known to have taken many photographs of/in the Trenton, Ohio, area at the turn-of-the-century, but this substantial archive may be the largest extant collection of his work.