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Photo by Jay Paul
Wayne Dementi, president of the Goochland County Historical Society, and Phyllis Silber, the organization's executive director, examine a historic photograph hanging in Goochland High School.
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Photo by Jay Paul
From left to right: Wayne Dementi, senior Sasha Kerr, Goochland superintendent James Lane, Phyllis Silber, student Christian Hopkins, career and technical education teacher Kenneth Bouwens, students Jordan Lynch and Trevor Profit pose with a print ready for display.
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Photo by Jay Paul
This shot of Goochland High School’s graduating class is one of more than 200 enlarged photos from the county historical society’s archive that are on display.
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Photo by Jay Paul
A student in Bouwens’ class measures a print
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Photo by Jay Paul
Hopkins (left) and Lynch (right) ready a frame on which to mount a print
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Photo by Jay Paul
Bouwens (right) assesses his students’ handiwork.
On a warm day in late September, Phyllis Silber meanders down the main hall of the Goochland County Administration Building. Silber, executive director of the county’s historical society, pauses to examine a vintage photograph, her smile fading. Before her is a framed photo taken in the 1930s by award-winning photographer W. Edwin Booth. The photo, titled “Storytime,” shows a freed slave, Sarah Ann Carroll of Crozier, sitting on the front porch of a cabin telling a story to some children. Silber recalls when two female visitors, who had seen the photo hanging in the building, came to talk to her. Referring to the children in the image, “They said, ‘That’s us in the picture,’ ” Silber recalls, tears welling in her eyes. “They were crying. They were so emotional.”
Another photograph depicts county resident Harvey Ransone, who was a stationmaster at what is currently the historic home of Elk Hill. In the photo, he is wearing a wedding ring that his father made from a gold nugget. Silber grins as she recalls the day Ransone’s daughter came to the building wearing the same ring and shared the story of its origins. “It’s just another good example of how [the photos] bring our history forward and relate directly to the living,” Silber says.
The historical society, in partnership with Goochland County, has worked to preserve the area’s heritage and bring the past to life through vintage photography installations throughout county buildings. More than 200 enlarged photographs from the society’s archives, which staff members began compiling in the late ’60s, can be found at the county’s administration building, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College’s Goochland campus and Goochland High School. Citizens of the county or their relatives have donated all the photos in the archive. Silber worked in tandem with Wayne Dementi, president of the historical society, to choose images for display that would highlight moments from the county’s past. Dementi has a background in photography. During the ’90s, he was president of his family-owned Dementi Studio, a Richmond photography company that opened in 1924 and specializes in historic images.
Dementi says the photography exhibits showcase the county’s heritage. “For Goochlanders themselves, it allows them to pause and reflect for a moment about the glory and tradition of our past and help us preserve and extend it,” he says.
The first photography installation was placed in the Goochland County Administration Building when it opened several years ago. The building’s white walls were bare, so county staff partnered with the historical society to liven up the space with images of old buildings, the county’s scenic rural landscapes and turn-of-the-century residents.
J. Sargeant Reynolds President Gary Rhodes teamed with Silber, Dementi and former county Supervisor William Quarles Jr. to bring vintage photos of the county to the community college’s Goochland campus. The installation is a part of Rhodes’ initiative to beautify the college’s three campuses using art and other mixed media.
“For me,” Rhodes says, “it’s like, do you want to go through life experiencing the world in black and white, or do you want to go through life experiencing it in color? So that’s my best metaphor — I think art really helps people appreciate the color of life.”
At the main entrance to Reynolds’ 150-acre Goochland campus, visitors are greeted by a series of photographs that place the viewer at the end of a long pathway. This, Silber says, is the exhibit’s underlying message: “The [students] understand that this is their history, but it’s also from their history that they decide where they are headed. Here you are, here’s your home, now where are you going? Choose your own direction.”
At Goochland High School, the historical society is in the process of adding its largest exhibit to date, which will incorporate more than 50 photographs. The installation, managed by the school’s career and technical education teacher, Kenneth Bouwens, includes historic photos of the high school along with other school- and county-related photography. Students enrolled in Bouwens’ classes are enlarging and hanging the photos, and writing captions for them.
Silber, a former teacher herself, swells with pride when looking at the photos hung in the school. Particularly resonant are the images of the 1946 Backbone School students (Backbone was a segregated elementary school in the county), the 1944 Goochland High School girls’ basketball team and the 1937 Watkinsville School students (a historic county elementary school that would close that same year). She can’t help but think about the future citizens those students would become, the citizens who would help make Goochland the county it is today. “I love each and every photograph, but the pictures of the schoolchildren — you are definitely looking into the eyes of the future,” Silber says.
The photography exhibit inside Goochland High School is an ongoing project. With the help of students, similar installations are planned for all county schools.
The historical society’s next photography exhibit is slated for the Goochland County Parks and Recreation Building at 1800 Sandy Hook Road. The installation will feature vintage shots of sports teams and recreational activities such as rowing. The society hopes the photography exhibits throughout the county will encourage viewers to take Goochland’s history and bring the group’s motto — “See It, Share It, Celebrate It” — to life. A calendar featuring many of the vintage images from the installations can also be purchased from the historical society.
For more information about Goochland County and its photography exhibits, contact the historical society at 2875 River Road West, 556-3966 or visit goochlandhistory.org.
