This is a very rare surviving piece of photographic ephemera showcasing 98 photographs by 13 photographers. It is titled:

A Loan Collection of Photographs

Exhibited by DAVIS & BANISTER

April 23rd to 30th, 1906

The exhibition was held in the showrooms of the stationery and bookseller Davis & Banister, located at 389 Main St. in Worcester, Massachusetts. The work was once owned by C.R. Tucker, (Charles Rollins Tucker: 1868-1956) physics teacher and amateur photographer living in Staten Island, N.Y.

The stationary store owner, Dwight A. Davis, was Worcester’s most notable pictorialist photographer of the early 20th Century. Eleven of his photographs are listed as part of this exhibition brochure. The Smithsonian American Art Museum (1.) has a brief biography of Davis:

Dwight Arthur Davis: 1852-1943

A Worcester, Massachusetts, member of the Pictorial Photographers of America, Davis exhibited his work in the controversial First American Salon in December 1905. Signaling a break between rival factions of American Pictorialism and Stiegliz’s Photo-Secession, this Salon introduced work of regional photographers such as Davis while omitting work by major figures such as George Seeley.

Along with John Chislett, Davis was singled out for his handling of light. Taken in the crepuscular light of early evening, Davis’s photograph exemplifies the impressionistic aesthetic of American Pictorialism.

1. Merry A. Foresta American Photographs: The First Century (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996)

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History of Davis & Banister

From the volume: Photography at the Worcester Art Museum, Keeping Shadows published in 2004, we learn Dwight Davis took over ownership of the store in 1901, (he had been a junior partner since 1873) and made Charles Banister his junior partner.  The volume also explores the photographers early beginnings: “It seems that Davis became interested in photography in the 1890’s, joining the Worcester Camera Club during the first decade.”  Critically, “three years later,  (in 1904) he exhibited eighteen prints in the first Worcester Art Museum Exhibition of Photographs; these were chiefly landscapes that reflect the artist’s interest in effects of light, with Impressionist radiance.” “In 1905, Davis was a juror for the Second Annual Exhibition of Photographs at the Worcester Art Museum. His reputation had already begun to broaden, for in that year his photographs were included in Curtis Bell’s Second American Salon.” p. 127

The following business history appeared in the volume History of Worcester and Its People, published in 1919:

Davis & Banister, stationery and booksellers, 386 Main St. (Dwight A. Davis and Chas. H. Banister). This firm succeeded Putnam Davis & Company. The business was established in 1842 by Jona. Grout, who was succeeded by Edward Mellen Jr., Jno. Keith & Co.; Grout & Bigelow, 1864; L. H. Bigelow, 1869; Grout & Putnam, 1871; Putnam & Davis, 1876. Located at 389 Main St. many years. Dwight Armsby Davis was born in Sturbridge, 1852, has lived here since 1853; began business 1865. Charles Hayden Banister, born at Lyndon, Vt., 1856, came here 1870, and began in business 1871.  (1.)

1. History of Worcester and Its People, Volume 2, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1919 N.Y., p. 1089. The firm moved to the ground floor of the brand-new, ten story Slater Building at 386 Main St. in June, 1908

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Dwight Arthur Davis, or Dwight Armsby Davis: 1852-1943

Charles Hayden Banister: 1856-1932