Exhibit Reception: Knox County Camera Club Revisited — Historical Photos by John Felton

The public is invited to the exhibit’s closing reception on Saturday, October 25, 2:00 – 4:00 PM. in the Picker Room!

During the month of October Camden Public Library is hosting a historical photo exhibit in the Picker Room, Knox County Camera Club Revisited: Historical Photos by John Felton, curated by John Felton’s granddaughter Mary Kay Felton.

The Knox County Camera Club was active from the 1930s to 1978. They hosted annual photo exhibitions at the Farnsworth and members participated in juried shows throughout Maine and Massachusetts. Local photographer John Felton was a 40+ year member. In the tradition of area photographers of the time, like Carroll Thayer Berry and Kosti Ruohomaa, Felton’s images captured local people, day to day life, and scenery in and around Camden, Rockport, and midcoast Maine.

In 2019, the Felton family loaned the negatives of the Felton Photo Collection to the Walsh History Center. The Walsh Center digitized close to a hundred of his 40+ year collection to date. John Felton’s granddaughter, Mary Kay Felton, organized the exhibition as an opportunity for people to see Camera Club exhibition photos not seen in the last 50-80+ years and to make the public aware of the Felton Collection in Camden Public Library’s Walsh History Center. John Felton would be proud to know that his great granddaughter, affectionately known as “Miss Amy” Hand, is CPL’s beloved childrens’ librarian.

Mary Kay Felton hopes residents with a long history in Camden or Rockport can help identify people featured in the collection of seventeen 16 x 20 black and white photos. An additional seven photos capture images of Camera Club members in Berry’s studio, at shows, and on outings. Many of the members have been identified, but Felton hopes exhibit goers can identify the remaining Camera Club members.

If you’re able to identify the subject of any photo, Felton encourages you to write the photo number, the name of the person you can identify, and your name and contact information on a slip of paper and drop it in the container provided in the Picker room this October.

For more information about the exhibit, contact Mary Kay Felton at feltonmk@gmail.com.