Information Sheet

 

 

R         Elgin, Robert L., 1914-

1015                Photograph collection, ca. 1950s-1990s.

                                    Thirty-six folders.

 

 

These are black and white photographs, color slides, plans, and detail drawings of historic structures in the northern Ozarks of Missouri.  Several counties are represented, but especially Crawford, Franklin, Gasconade, Maries, Phelps, Osage, and Washington.  The primary topics are vernacular architecture, log structures, churches, and cemeteries.

 

Robert L. Elgin is a native of Platte County, Missouri.  He attended the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla, where he graduated in 1937 with a degree in civil engineering.  During World War Two, Elgin was commissioned Ensign in the U. S. Navy and served in the South Pacific with Seabee battalions building airfields and base facilities.  He retired from the Navy as commander, USNR.  He returned to Phelps County in 1945, becoming director of operations at Maramec Spring Park for the James Founda­tion.  He made the first architectural and archaeological surveys of this important early industrial site in Missouri, and his research and drawings were used extensively by James Norris in his his­tory of the Maramec Iron Works, Frontier Iron.  Elgin was Phelps County Surveyor for thirty-six years, and in 1962 formed Elgin Surveying and Engineering, Inc.  The firm is now owned and operated by his son, Richard L. Elgin.

 

Elgin was professionally and personally interested in mining sites, vernacular architecture, historic homes, log structures, churches, cemeteries, traditional crafts, and woodworking.  About 1960, he began to visit and photograph sites in Missouri, especially in Crawford, Franklin, Gasco­nade, Maries, Osage, Phelps, and Washington counties.  Some of the structures, notably the log structures, were in ruins when he visited them and others were in the process of demolition.  Many are no longer standing and the photographs by Elgin may be the only record of the structures.

 

The Elgin collection consists of several hundred 2 ˝” x 2 ˝” black and white negatives, prints, and 35mm color slides.  Most of the negatives are enclosed in envelopes bearing informa­tion on location such as section, township and range, and sometimes a sketch map of the site.  The slides include a program on churches and cemeteries, along with accompanying notes, once shown to civic and social groups around Phelps County.  The photographs are organized by county and the slides topically.  The collection is strongest for images showing vernacular architecture, log homes, and churches, but there are also views of barns, brush arbors, grave markers, lead furnaces, log outbuildings, mills, privies, schools, smokehouses, and examples of early woodcraft.

 

There is extensive documentation  for several sites, including a site plan, elevations, floor plans, and drawings of features at the Snelson (also known as Brinker) cabin in Crawford County near Maramec Spring, along with preservation and development estimates prepared for the James Foundation in 1960; drawings of the wellhead at the old Maries County jail in Vienna; detail drawings of the fireplace mantle of the McGirk house in Montgomery County; elevations and plan of the Muenks house near Loose Creek in Osage County; drawings of details of the Fort, Lewis (also known as Brown), and Muller cabins near Maramec Spring; and elevation, plan, and details of the Krafczik blacksmith shop in Phelps County.  There is also a “Condition Report and Preser­vation Estimate” for the Valle-Rozier house (now known as the Felix Valle house, a state historic site) and adjacent slave quarters in Ste. Genevieve, prepared for the Missouri State Park Board in 1969.

 

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