People, Place and Time: Michigan’s Copper Country Through the Lens of J.W. Nara, a traveling exhibit created by the Michigan Tech Archives, will visit the Keweenaw County Historical Society in Eagle Harbor. The exhibit, which will be installed in the Society’s Fishing Museum building, explores the life and times of Calumet photographer J.W. Nara and is open to the public through July 10 through August 14 during the museum’s regular hours.
On Sunday, July 11, the Society will host a public reception and program at 2:00 p.m. in conjunction with the exhibit installation. Erik Nordberg from the Michigan Tech Archives will provide introductory comments about the life and photography of J.W. Nara.
John William Nara was born in Finland in 1874. He later immigrated to the United States and established a photographic studio in Calumet, Michigan, in the heart of America’s most productive copper mining region. In addition to posed studio portraits, J. W. Nara’s lens also captured the people, place, and time he experienced in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Copper mining and industry are an important part of the story, but Nara also captured the Keweenaw’s rural landscape, including local farms, shorelines, lighthouses, and pastoral back roads.
The travelling exhibit, funded in part by descendants Robert and Ruth Nara of Bootjack Michigan, works from historical photographs held at the Michigan Tech Archives. Interpretive panels highlight the people, places, and times that J.W. Nara experienced during his lifetime and include material on urban life, farming, and the 1913 Michigan copper miners’ strike. A small exhibit catalog is available at no charge and includes three Nara photograph postcards from the collection.
The J.W. Nara exhibit will remain on display at the Keweenaw County Historical Society through August 14. More informaton about the exhibit is available here, including details on hosting the exhibit at your location. J.W. Nara photographs are online as part of the Keweenaw Digital Archives — now at 9,000 images and still growing!