SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - Bob Piland’s Springfield home is filled with Springfield history that dates to the early days of photography.
He has tintypes from the 1860s. He has 5-inch-by-7-inch cabinet cards, which are printed on stiff cardboard. He has carte-de-visites, a French way of describing small calling cards with a portrait. This process was patented in 1854 by a French photographer.
In a bedroom cabinet is a collection of glass bottles embossed with the names of long-gone Springfield businesses.
Atop the headboard of his bed is a collection of “yard-longs,” which were wide and narrow photos promoting businesses. One is for Springfield Wagon Company, in business in Springfield from 1873 to 1941.
Filling one pane of a glass in a cabinet on the leeward side of the bed is a portrait of Frank S. Heffernan - a powerful Springfield attorney in the years before and after 1900.
This imposing face in the bedroom is no relation to Piland. The only connection is Springfield history.
“He died the day the Titanic sunk,” Piland told the Springfield News-Leader .
Piland said he has a grand collection of photos and other items that reflect Springfield’s history, including photographs involving people and events reporter Steve Pokin had written about previously.
One was a photo of Lucile Morris Upton as a girl of about 12. On Dec. 22, a profile ran of Lucile and her 58-year trailblazing career as a reporter in Springfield.
A second photo was of Daniel Doss Galbraith, who was mentioned in a Dec. 20 column on the lynchings of three black men on the Springfield square on April 14, 1906.
Galbraith was the only person brought to trial in connection with the murders. His trial resulted in a hung jury, with 10 of 12 jurors deciding he was not guilty. He was not re-tried.
The third photo was of a statue of a woman. The statue was made by Watts Bros., which in around 1900 had a business at 512 and 514 Boonville.
It resembles the Statue of Liberty in that it’s a woman in a tunic holding up a torch.
But it is not a replica of the Statue of Liberty, as had been reported in one of Pokin’s columns.
It has been reported for decades by assorted journalists that there was a replica of the Statue of Liberty atop the Gottfried Tower, where the men were lynched.
An enlarged historical photo of the Gottfried Tower shows that the statue on top is not a replica of the Statue of Liberty. Lady Liberty most definitely has spikes sprouting from her crown. This statue does not.
Author Kimberly Harper wrote that the statue atop the Gottfried Tower was the “Goddess of Liberty” and was designed and built by the Watts Brothers.
Harper wrote the 2010 book “White Man’s Heaven: The Lynching and Expulsion of Blacks in the Southern Ozarks 1894-1909.”
In almost every room of Piland’s house is a cabinet or two that, upon opening, reveal more of his collection, which he has compiled over 25 years.
He has a volume of bound newspapers from 1899. He has files on subjects such as “Heer’s building,” ’’Rose O’Neill” and “Shrine Mosque.”
He has historic photos that include a smoldering Baldwin Theatre, which burned to ashes in 1909.
He has a cloth banner from when Springfield was named an All-America City in 1956.
Years ago, he bought a collection of photos that told the story of the 1917 abduction, ransom and death of Baby Lloyd Keet, which was written about in the Springfield News-Leader in February 2016.
Piland and his wife, Becky, tied the knot of richer or poorer 46 years ago. Piland said his wife is OK with his large collection.
“I don’t think anybody has more postcards than I do,”Piland said. “I am pretty darn sure that nobody has more cabinet cards than I do.”
He doesn’t know how many photographs he has because he has never counted them. Sometimes, it takes him a while to find the one he seeks.
“I am kind of a guy who wants to be organized,” he said. “And I work at it. But I am always behind. I am half organized. … There are a lot of things that I could not be able to get to for a week or two.”
Piland said his collection is not a business. He sells little and keeps almost everything he finds.
“It is more than a hobby. It is kind of an obsession,” he said.
He is retired but for years owned a record and CD store called Spin Again Records.
To compile his Springfield collection, he would buy items - usually one at a time - at antique shops and collectors’ shows.
Back then, he said, there were only a handful of hardcore collectors of Springfield historical photos. Today, there are far more.
In retirement, he said, he buys fewer items.
“There are fewer things to find and they are a lot more expensive,” he said.
Occasionally, local historian Richard Crabtree will use a Piland photo and give Piland credit.
Crabtree, a Murney real estate agent, publishes the Facebook page “Springfield, Missouri, History, Landmarks and Vintage Photography.”
“His collection is huge, and he has everything,” Crabtree said. “He has four binders of Springfield postcards.”
Piland isn’t sure what will happen to his treasures when he dies.
“I don’t know what is going to happen to all this stuff,” he said. “I have not reached the point where I have to decide.”
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Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.news-leader.com
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