Delta gold

Photography exhibit shares life on Delta in early 20th century

Chris Engholm, organizer of the Preller photographs, set out to capture oral histories about life on the White River when he met Gayne Preller Schmidt, granddaughter of Gayne and Hugo Preller. Schmidt had her grandmother's collection of Delta art and photography, a state treasure.
Chris Engholm, organizer of the Preller photographs, set out to capture oral histories about life on the White River when he met Gayne Preller Schmidt, granddaughter of Gayne and Hugo Preller. Schmidt had her grandmother's collection of Delta art and photography, a state treasure.

Four years ago, Bentonville photographer Chris Engholm set out to capture oral histories about life on the White River. He found much of what he expected. But he also found something he could never have imagined.

In Augusta, the 2,693-person county seat of Woodruff County, Engholm struck Delta gold. Since then, he's been sharing what he found through a book titled Hugo and Gayne Preller's House of Light and an exhibit of the same name, which opens tonight at the Peel Mansion in Bentonville.

FAQ

‘House of Light’

WHEN — Through April 8

WHERE — Peel Mansion in Bentonville

COST — Free

INFORMATION — 254-3870

BONUS — A reception begins at 6 p.m. today. Admission is free.

"To a resident of Arkansas, I'd say this exhibit features a state treasure that simply can't be missed," Engholm told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a 2015 interview. "To outlanders, I'd say it's the finest collection of Delta art and photography to surface in a very long time, and the most significant body of work by an American floating photographer ever exhibited."

Hugo Preller, a German immigrant 10 years older than 16-year-old Gayne Avey, met the girl in Columbus, Ky., on the banks of the Mississippi River. As the story goes, Hugo promised Gayne (pronounced gay-nee) adventure on a sail-powered houseboat -- and he delivered. Together, they traveled the Mississippi and the White rivers from around 1895 until the 1950s, Preller providing their living by hunting and fishing, along with fixing clocks and guns and fiddles. And Gayne? Well, it turned out she had a talent for photography, and over the course of her lifetime, she took thousands of portraits of the proverbial "every man" she met along the way.

"I didn't realize it was extremely rare at that time for a young woman to create her own business and become a successful entrepreneur," says Engholm, the exhibit's creator. "For a lot of women, it was simply insurmountable. But Gayne was a standout. Not only did she ignore gender limitations of that era, but also, as her grandddaughter calls her, she was 'colorblind.' Gayne was welcoming to everyone in community who wanted to come in and have pictures taken. You can see how inclusive she was. She was way ahead of her time."

Of course, both the Prellers are long dead, but in Augusta, Engholm met their granddaughter, Gayne Preller Schmidt, now 84 years old. He convinced her -- not easily, he notes -- he would be a trustworthy steward of the photos she had saved and protected for some 60 years.

"She did know she had something unique," he says. "She knew she had a huge collection of priceless stuff. But years ago, a not-so-scrupulous collector had purchased some prints from her and published them without her permission. And a museum curator had come by and interviewed her and written an article riddled with errors. ... She had a bad taste in her mouth when I paddled into town."

But an acquainatnce at the Lower White River Museum in Des Arc knew Schmidt, and she had coached Engholm on his pitch.

"We hit it off," he says simply. "I had a background in photography and history. She was one of the interviewees for [the White River] project. Our friendship is really what became the core we could count on moving ahead."

Thanks to the Historic Arkansas Museum, the exhibit as it comes to the Peel Mansion astounds even Engholm.

"They did the conservation work on 100 original portraits that are about 4-by-6 inches, framed and mounted them -- that's something special you see in this new version," he enthuses. "Also, we have a replica of the houseboat built in the 1970s by a well-known Little Rock portraitist and architect Greer Lile; it's borrowed for the duration of all the exhibits. Hugo painted all the backdrops used in Gayne's studio, so we had one rendered and will photograph the guests in front of that. And Gayne and I will both speak Friday night."

If viewers find a message in Engholm's exhibit, he hopes it is a lesson he learned along the White River -- that everyone must be responsible for his own heritage.

"I talked to so many families that didn't keep the photographs, didn't keep the letters, didn't keep these precious things that preserve our history."

NAN What's Up on 02/17/2017

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