Amateur photographer and Ohio native Elizabeth Garst Stoltz (1863-1944) was an early student of Clarence Hudson White, founding member of the American Photo-Secession movement and the Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York City. Believed to be around 50 years of age when she enrolled at the White school, surviving print details from one of four photographs owned by this archive indicate Stoltz was enrolled there as early as 1914, with her photograph A New England Doorway carrying the written address of 230 East Eleventh St. in New York City on the print support verso. At this time, the school’s first location was located at this address from 1914-1917. (1.)  Another mounted photograph by Stoltz, Rest Haven, carries a later date label of 1923, when it was exhibited as part of the annual exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society in London. At that time until 1940, the White school was located in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan at 460 W. 144th St. In the early 1920’s Garst lived in Marion, OH, and was a member of the White-founded society the Pictorial Photographers of America, with her photograph Open-Air Pulpit, Grace Church (taken in New York City) published as a halftone in their 1921 annual.

One of nine children born to Henry Clay Garst (1818-1901) and Miriam Hufnagle Garst, (1827- 1897) Elizabeth Garst Stoltz was born in Greenville, OH on February 11, 1863 and died there on May 9, 1944 at 81 years of age. She was married to Calvin C. Stoltz, who owned a wholesale grocery business- an intriguing connection to Clarence White himself, employed in the early 20th Century as a bookkeeper for the wholesale grocery firm Fleek & Neal in Newark, OH. Stoltz’s obituary additionally stated she was a teacher in the Greenville public school system for an unknown amount of time. (2.) Three years after her death in 1947, the Garst family homestead located at 205 North Broadway in Greenville, OH was willed by the Garst heirs to the Darke County (OH) Historical Society, (3.) which now maintains The Garst Museum and their own offices in the former home.

print details: recto: signed in graphite on recto of laid-tissue primary support : Elizabeth G. Stoltz

verso: titled in graphite: 5  A. New England Doorway.    (1036) (red pencil)

Mrs. Elizabeth G. Stoltz.
℅ Mr. Clarence H. White
#230 East Eleventh St.
New York.

in black ink: Mrs Elizabeth G. Stoltz.
205 North Broadway.
Greenville Ohio
Darke Co.

the following crossed out:

233 North Main St
Keaton (?) Ohio
℅ Dr. W.A (?) Belt

provenance: acquired for this archive in 2011, with former owner being the retired doctor  Nora Gillis of Weston, MA.

notes:

1. In the same year, 1917, the White school moved to their second location: “In 1917 the school occupied the “Washington Irving House” at 122 E. 17th St. at the corner of Irving Place near Union Square and Gramercy Park.”: from website background: The Clarence H. White School of Photography: VERNA POSEVER CURTIS: Photos from the Clarence H. White School: Library of Congress: accessed: August, 2013. It is also possible Stoltz was a student of White’s before 1914, and would have attended classes at his Seguinland School of Photography in Maine or in CT at East Canaan.
2. Garst obituary: from: Union City (OH) Times-Gazette, Thursday, May 11, 1944: source:Darke County Ohio Genealogical Society online records:
“Mrs. Elizabeth Garst Stoltz, 81, widow of the late C. C. Stoltz, died Tuesday morning at the Wayne hospital in Greenville after two weeks of serious illness. She was a former teacher in the Greenville schools, and had lived several years at Marion, Ohio, where her husband had a wholesale grocery business. She was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal church. Surviving are two sisters, Mrs. Joseph Menke and Miss Kate Garst of Greenville. Funeral services will be held at the Miller funeral home in Greenville Friday at 2:30 p. m., with burial in Greenville cemetery.”
3. see: The Hamilton (OH) Daily News Journal, May 17, 1947