THE KNAFFL STUDIO NEGATIVES

by Ron Allen

As most everybody around here knows, or should know (and as I've mentioned elsewhere more than once in other writings), Knoxville has a sad track record in preserving its old buildings, particularly in the downtown area. The majority of the city's old downtown structures are no longer in existence, including virtually all of the private residences that were downtown just fifty or so years ago. Such was the fate of the buildings along the north side of Vine avenue, west of Gay street. Some of the buildings were lost in fires and others were demolished, but none of those original buildings are standing today. One firm that occupied a building on that street was the Knaffl photographic studio. A fire had damaged that building years ago. Shortly afterwards, an antique dealer of my acquaintance, who was involved in setting up weekly antique shows in various cities around the country, told me of his acquisition of the original glass photographic negatives that were in that building. A friend had told him that a large collection of those negatives were still in the building, and the negatives were about to be destroyed along with the building itself. He quickly acquired a truck, hastened to the site, and removed the negatives, just before the building came tumbling down, thus saving the negatives from being lost forever. He kept those negatives in storage for many years afterwards. The first time he mentioned their existence to me, I naturally expressed an interest in purchasing them, but he was unwilling to part with any of them.

The dealer died a while later, and some time afterwards by chance one day I happened to see his widow in a local antique mall. Remembering those negatives, I asked if she still had them, and if she might be willing to part with them. She did have the negatives, and was not unreceptive to the idea, so I made an appointment and drove out to her home later that week to look the negatives. I soon discovered that she was still reluctant at that time to sell any of the large late nineteenth and early twentieth century negatives that had been among the most popular prints issued by the Knaffl company, being pictures depicting humorous poses of African Americans that the studio had published and sold throughout the country. The firm originally called those prints "Coon pictures", a racist term that unfortunately was in usage a century ago. But she did sell me a sizeable number of other original Knaffl glass negatives. They included outdoor and indoor scenes, negatives of the firm's now-famous "Madonna", and other original glass negatives made by the Knaffl studio, the same negatives the firm had used a century ago when making and selling "art prints". I later referred to those larger ones as "hernia" negatives. They were 20 inches by 24 inches in size, on heavy thick glass plates, and merely lifting just two or three of them at one time was something of a chore. On the chance that I might be successful in buying some of the negatives, I had taken some blankets and other padding with me. I carefully placed the negatives in my station wagon and cushioned them as best I could, then drove at a snail's pace while transporting them, fearing that the least bump in the road could result in breaking some the fragile glass plates. I finally managed to successfully move them from the station wagon into my storage house, with an aching back for my troubles. The McClung Historical Collection at the Knoxville library eventually acquired those negatives, and I was relieved not only that I no longer had to worry that some of them might be broken, but also that the collection was now ensconced in a safe place

In more recent years, I received a telephone call from with the same lady. She had decided that she would dispose of the remaining Knaffl negatives. That group included some different poses of the "Madonna" pictures that seemingly were never published (at least, poses I had never seen previously), plus a sizeable number of those original rare negatives of the studio's African American poses. I drove to her home, looked over the remaining Knaffl negatives, we agreed on a price, and I was able to purchase those remaining glass negatives. As with the initial collection of Knaffl negatives, those likewise are today at the McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County library.

Based on what I've observed over the years, my personal opinion is that since their original appearance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, those African American prints have probably been reproduced more often than any of the Knaffl Company's other prints, including their more well-publicized "Madonna"..

I've related this brief story to illustrate the fact that occasionally one can still find significant old historical items, although such materials are rapidly disappearing from the scene. I noticed a few years ago that among the listings of Knoxville's residents in the 1884 city directory was Mrs. Mary Smiley, the widow of Thomas H. Smiley. She was then living at number 17 Summer street, between Walnut and Locust. Her husband was one of Knoxville's early photographers, and I couldn't help but wonder whatever happened to the negatives Smiley produced in the middle nineteenth century. His photographs of Knoxville are among the earliest known views of the city, and goodness knows what other local views he may have captured with his camera in those times. I suppose one must assume that nobody thought to contact Mrs. Smiley back then, with the idea that those negatives should be preserved, before they were eventually tossed away or destroyed. If somebody hadn't told that antique dealer of the existence of those Knaffl negatives in the building on Vine street, just before that old structure was reduced to dust, those negatives likely would have been destroyed in the process. I'm pleased that I had a small part in the preservation that collection.

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