Photographs Tell the Story includes over sixty photographs and an antique camera from the archives of local photographer Chris Wilborn. The show, curated by Bruce Bettinger, includes large panoramas and local iconic sights, including a group portrait at Longview Farm and a pre-race scene on the short-lived wood track of the Kansas City Speedway.
Wilborn’s archives include original negatives dating back to the early 1900s. The negatives are from Wilborn & Associates, Tyner and Murphy (their parent company), and Anderson Photography (purchased in 1987). This show represents a small sampling of the photographs in his immense collection. It is likely the largest private collection of Kansas City commercial photography in the world, with over 100,000 negatives and prints spanning the past 100 years.
John Hans of Dolphin Archival Printing, located in the Haw Contemporary Gallery, printed the photos from scans of original negatives and contact prints. This is the second Kansas City history show Bruce Bettinger has curated for The Box Gallery.
