The Cassville Photographs of Frank W. Feiker - Image Gallery Essay
Around 1905 photographer Frank W. Feiker moved from Milwaukee to Cassville, Wisconsin, and for the next half-century he documented the daily life of that typical Mississippi River town. In this gallery we've brought together 147 of his best photographs. They range from intimate portraits to sprawling landscapes. Their subjects include everything from subterranean mineshafts to elevated views from bluff tops. Many images bear his signature "Souvenir" mark, denoting that the image was used on a postcard. The Feiker collection provides a rich visual record of Cassville over several decades and exhibits the work of a typical early 20th-century, small-town photographer.
Cassville's Downtown and River Life
Group of Women and Girls in the Woods, 1892
Cassville, Wisconsin. Six young women are posed on a ladder in a woods. There is a young girl in front of them. A woman and a young girl are standing off to the side. View the original source document: WHI 95937
The collection contains many photographs of businesses along Cassville's main streets. This makes it possible to trace the history of the community's built environment during the first half of the 20th century by using Feiker's images.
Like most visitors to Cassville, Feiker was fascinated by the Mississippi River. Many of his photographs show vessels of different types over a 50-year period, including an iceboat, barges, ferries and steamboats. Feiker also photographed floods, shipwrecks, mining, farming and rural life.
One glass-plate negative contains 16 images of Cassville and is marked, 'Souvenir,' as if it were intended for a set of postcard views to be sold together.
Frank W. Feiker — A Brief Biography
Frank Feiker was born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1874. In 1887, Frank’s brother Herman opened a photography studio in Milwaukee, and Frank began to work with him. By 1889, when he was 15, Frank was already listed in the city’s business directory as a photographer. In 1905, Frank, along with Herman's family, moved from Readlyn, Iowa to Cassville where Frank bought a studio from local photographer Charles Ismael. He lived in the back of the building the rest of his life.
When Feiker first moved to Cassville, he took a number of photographs with a timer so that he could be in the picture too. In 1936 a W.P.A. researcher interested in Wisconsin governor Nelson Dewey interviewed Feiker because he owned a clock belonging to Dewey and other Dewey memorabilia.
As Feiker grew older, he became increasingly reclusive. He took fewer photographs of outside town scenes or landscapes and took more studio portraits inside. He died in April 1950 at age 74, after his neighbors found him unconscious.
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