A surprisingly modernist aesthetic can be found in this composition of two merchants in Mexico: a woman at center along with the gentleman at right displaying wares on the ground -seated against a sun-bleached outdoor wall. A child plays in front of a doorway at left. The photograph most likely dates to the mid 1930’s- consistent with other dated photographs by the photographer held by this archive.

Wallace Fairbank:  1872-1940

Wallace Fairbank was one of 8 children born to Nathaniel Kellogg (1829-1903) and Helen Livingston Graham Fairbank. (1840-1895) The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, of which Nathaniel Fairbank was the first president of the Orchestral Association, notes he “was the founder and owner of the NK Fairbank Company, which manufactured lard, soap and cleaning products in connection with Chicago’s meatpacking industries. The company revolutionized soap technology and created the modern European household mainstay Fairy Soap, exported through Fairbank’s international offices in the United Kingdom and Germany.”

Perhaps because his father had an interest in the arts, in 1888, young Wallace, only around 16 years of age, is listed as being admitted a member of the Chicago Lantern-Slide Club that year in the November 16th issue of The Photographic Times.

Fairbank graduated from Harvard University in 1895 and married Josephine Nelson of Chicago in 1901. They had three children. ^⌘ In a published “Third Report” by his alma mater in 1905, he provided professional and personal details ten years after his graduation:

In the fall of 1895 I entered the Congress Gold Company, Congress, Arizona, later taking position of assistant superintendent. Returned to Chicago in summer of 1900, entering the Tiffany Enameled Brick Company and Clay City Coal Company, director of the former and general manager of the latter. In February, 1901, I returned to Arizona as assistant secretary and treasurer of the Santa Fé, Prescott & Phoenix Railway Company, with headquarters at Prescott, Arizona. In November I was made secretary-treasurer and director of this company and subsidiary companies. Elected director of the Congress Consolidated Mines Company, Limited, in March, 1901. Married, January 19, 1901, Josephine Nelson, and have one son, Nathaniel Kellogg, born November 29, 1902. I belong to the University Club of Chicago; American Institute of Mining Engineers; the Yavapai Club, Arizona; and Das Leppe Club.

With a lack of published sources since this time however, a small surviving archive of Fairbanks mounted prints acquired in Maine in 2024 show that in retirement, he was an exhibitor at the Camera Club of New York as early as June of 1935, five years before his passing. One print, “Courtyard” believed to be a scene in Mexico, has the label of The Camera Club stamped in December, 1936 as part of the annual members show by print committee chairman C. B. Boles.

^⌘ Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank, born Nov. 29, 1902 |Murray Nelson Fairbank, born Nov. 4, 1906 |Beeckman Livingston Fairbank, born May 9, 1912.