Background
Oscar Grossheim was born 3 April 1862, in Muscatine, Iowa.
Oscar Grossheim was born 3 April 1862, in Muscatine, Iowa.
As a young boy, Grossheim was apprenticed to an area photographer, J.G. Evans, who used the wet plate collodion process to produce glass plate negatives.
In 1892, the brothers parted ways and Oscar opened his own studio at 309 East 2nd Saint, where he worked until 1898. That same year, he built his permanent studio building at 317 East. 2nd Saint, and remained there until his retirement in May 1954. Grossheim"s body of work, which consists of approximately 55,000 glass plate negatives, is maintained by Musser Public Library in Muscatine, Iowa. The library has digitized and made available online over 4,000 images which can be viewed on the Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive.
The subject matter of Grossheim"s work includes individual portrait studio sessions, group photos, documentation of the area pearl button industry, and storefront displays.
The article goes on to state that Mr. Grossheim and Mr. Eastman discussed a prototype of the portable camera and that they visited one another in their respective places of business.
According to an article in the Muscatine Journal, Grossheim met George Eastman of Eastman Kodak Company at a convention of the members of the Photographers" Association of America (later changed to the Professional Photographers of America) in the 1880s, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.