Benjamin Franklin Van Dyke • Pioneer Photographer
Glass Plate
Photography
88 glass negative photographic plates taken by Benjamin Franklin Van Dyke,
many more than 100 years old.
These images capture life in Iowa and Oklahoma Territory at the turn of the 20th century— family portraits, pioneer homesteads, and the everyday moments that defined an era. Preserved through generations, they now tell the story of America's frontier families.
The Glass Plate Process
Benjamin Franklin Van Dyke used a large-format glass plate camera to capture these images. Glass plate photography was the standard for professional and serious amateur photographers from the 1850s through the early 1900s.
Each photograph required coating a glass plate with light-sensitive emulsion, exposing it in the camera, and developing it through a careful chemical process. The results—preserved on glass—have lasted more than a century.
This collection of 93 glass plates represents Benjamin's eye for composition and his desire to document the rapidly changing world of Oklahoma Territory—from pioneer settlements to early statehood, from rural landscapes to family gatherings.
Images courtesy of Bill Arnett, who preserved and digitized these glass plates passed down through the family. Original plates loaned by Caroline McMichael (Noel's mother) for digitization.
The Collection
Click any image to view larger. Many of these photographs show unidentified family members and scenes from pioneer life. If you can identify any of the people or places, please reach out.
A Window Into the Past
These glass plate photographs are more than family snapshots—they're historical documents that capture life on the American frontier at the turn of the 20th century.
Benjamin Franklin Van Dyke brought his camera to Iowa and Oklahoma Territory, photographing family gatherings, homesteads, town scenes, and the everyday moments of pioneer life. Each image required skill, patience, and careful chemical processing.
The glass plates themselves have survived more than a century, passed down through generations of the Van Dyke family. That they exist at all is remarkable—glass is fragile, and many such collections have been lost to time.
Many of the people in these photographs remain unidentified. Some faces look back at us across the decades, their stories largely forgotten. Others we know—family members whose names and lives connect to the broader Van Dyke narrative.
These images are Benjamin Franklin Van Dyke's legacy as much as the Inmates' Watch or his SAR membership—a gift from the past, preserved for the future.