Editorial comment for this plate:

THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHOTOGRAPHERS’ ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA.

OUR frontispiece this week is an excellent portrait of Mr. George H. Hastings, President of the Photographers’ Association of America. The negative was made in Mr. Hastings’ own studio on Tremont Street, Boston, and is a fair example of the high grade of work habitually turned out at this establishment.

George H. Hastings was born in Irasburg, Vt., January 3, 1852, which makes him one of the youngest presidents the Association has ever had. Early in life young Hastings evinced a taste for artistic pursuits, beginning the study of photography at Lyndonville, Vt., when only seventeen years old. ‘The following year he succeeded his employer, O. C. Bolton, in the photographic business.

In 1812 Mr. Hastings removed to St. Johnsbury, Vt., and there he bought out the old poet-photographer, F. B. Gage, remaining in St. Johnsbury until 1846. He then sold out this establishment, and, after working in different cities for some time, settled in Newton, Mass., in 1878. Here he conducted a very successful business for two years.

Mr. Hastings then commenced his Boston career, establishing the partnership of Ritz & Hastings, at Temple Place. At the end of four years he bought Mr. Ritz’s interest in the partnership, and since that time has conducted this large establishment alone. In addition to his Boston establishment, Mr. Hastings owns a half interest in the summer studio of E. C. Dana, at Newport, R. I.

Mr. Hastings’ reputation as an artistic photographer has steadily increased until now he enjoys as fine a patronage as any photographer in the city, and is classed in the very first rank of photographers, both in photographic circles and by the public generally.

It was not until recent years that Mr. Hastings exhibited examples of his work in the Annual Conventions of the Photographers’ Association of America; but no sooner had he commenced to show his fine portraits than very conspicuous recognition was awarded them. At the Minneapolis Convention, in 1888, he was elected First Vice-President of the Association, and at Boston, the year following, was re-elected to the same high office. He was unanimously elected President last summer at Washington, and were it not for the unwritten law that no President shall succeed himself, Mr. Hastings would undoubtedly be a strong candidate for re-election for the highest office in the gift of the National Association.

Among the other prizes which Mr. Hastings has won by the excellence of his photographic work, is the Grand Prize, which was awarded to him at Washington last summer, for his collection of original Enoch Arden pictures.

Mr. Hastings’ portrait indicates the kind of man he is—sunny in temperament and a genial companion. Few members of our fraternity have so many or so cordial friends.

As a presiding officer Mr. Hastings has yet to win his spurs, but those who know him best are confident that the Twelfth Annual Convention, under his presidency, will be as successful as any yet held by the Photographers’ Association of America.

George H. Hastings: 1852-1931

Additional biography (excerpt) courtesy Broadway Photographs:

Massachusetts native (sic) George H. Hastings established a studio in Newton, Massachusetts in the 1870s before joining with (Earnest F.) Ritz. Among his novelties as a young photographer were bringing his outfit into a sitter’s home for a “home portrait.” A sociable, ambitious man, he was the driving force in the expansion of the partnership. Once the two men separated, he immediately began building his business, securing Dartmouth College as a client in 1885. He also began group portraits of Boston baseball teams and players, the genre by which he is best known among current collectors of photographica. By 1891 he had been elected President of the Photographers’ Association of America, in 1897 the president of the Photographers’ Club of New England, and when this organization evolved into the Photographers’ Association of New England, he became perpetual secretary. In 1919 he assumed control of the Chickering Studio. Though active as a camera artist in the 1880s and ’90s, his duties became largely administrative after the turn of the 20th century.