Margaret Sutermeister (1875–1950) was an American photographer active in Massachusetts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Margaret Sutermeister | |
|---|---|
.jpg) self–portrait, 1895, Albumen silver print | |
| Born | April 10, 1875 Milton, Massachusetts |
| Died | May 30, 1950 (aged 75) Milton, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Photography |
Biography
editMargaret "Daisy" Sutermeister was born in 1875 in Milton, Massachusetts, to Emmanuel Sutermeister and Harriet Georgianna Davenport. Her father, who was of Swiss descent, ran a commercial plant nursery and vegetable garden and was also a fireman.[1][2] Her brother was chemist Edwin Sutermeister. She lived for most of her life in the Capen-Davenport-Sutermeister House on Canton Avenue, which had been built in 1781 and was located on the same property as the family nursery.[1][3]
After leaving school in 1894, Sutermeister took up photography using a glass plate camera to document everyday life in Milton and the surrounding area.[3] Over the next 15 years, she shot a wide range of subjects: romantic landscapes, lively street scenes, scientific experiments, and portraits both formal and candid.[3] Among the people she photographed are middle-class whites, African Americans, Gypsy vendors, farmhands, and Asian laundrymen.[2][3][4]
When her father died in 1909, she took over managing the family's Davenport Nursery and gave up photography.[3]
She died in 1951, and a year later the new owners of her house discovered her 1800 glass-plate negatives in a barn. They donated this archive of turn-of-the-century Massachusetts life to the Milton Historical Society. It was published in the early 1990s by art historian Judith Bookbinder and has formed the basis of a number of exhibitions since.[5]
Ten of Sutermeister's photographs are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell, and Paul Buchanan. Milton Architecture. Arcadia Publishing, 2000, p. 40.
- ^ a b Doherty, Brian A. Milton Firefighting. Arcadia Publishing, 2007, p. 62.
- ^ a b c d e "New display of historical maps and Sutermeister photos at Milton Library". My Town Matters, Sept. 3, 2013.
- ^ Price, Michael, and Anthony Mitchell Sammarco. Boston's Immigrants 1840–1925. Arcadia Publishing, 2000, p. 88.
- ^ Bookbinder, Judith. Margaret Sutermeister: Chronicling Seen and Unseen Worlds 1894–1909. The Milton Historical Society, Milton, 1993.
- ^ "CAP Search Results / Related to Margaret 'Daisy' Sutermeister" National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution website.