February 12 through April 30, 2013

SHARED HISTORIES

R.J. Arnold’s Portraits of the Central Coast

Recently the El Paso de Robles Area Historical Society received two thousand 19th-century glass plate photographic negatives; the largest collection of historic items received by the Society to date. The collection, the work of photographer R.J. Arnold, was donated by Jacqueline D. Marie in memory of Randal Young. A group of Historical Society volunteers has been working steadily to clean and catalog the negatives which had been stored in less than ideal conditions for many years.

In December 2012, Anthony Lepore, anthonylepore.net, came to Paso Robles and spent several days going through the negatives, carefully making selections that would be developed and displayed in an upcoming exhibit at the Carnegie Historic Library entitled “Shared Histories…R.J. Arnold’s Portraits of the Central Coast”. The beautifully rendered photographs were scanned in high resolution format resulting in highly detailed, compelling images of central coast residents and their surroundings dating from the mid to late 1800’s. The collection of photographs also points to the diversity of native and immigrant cultures prevalent in San Luis Obispo County at that time.

A selection of 19 photographs from the Randal Young collection, curated by Mr. Lepore, will be exhibited at the Carnegie Historic Library from February 12th through April 30th. To compliment the exhibit, display cases will feature a selection of vintage photographic equipment.

Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted.

Also,

North County Community Quilt Exhibit