By 1891, Gifford was operating a successful photography studio. (Submitted by Bowman Museum)

Benjamin Arthur Gifford was born in Danville, Illinois, on Nov. 11, 1859. His family was farmers, but he decided that was not an occupation for him, and he left home in 1880. He was a photographer’s apprentice in Sedalia, Missouri, for a while. After a few months, he formed a studio partnership in Fort Scott, Kansas. Two years later, he sold his share of the business and relocated to Chetopa, Kansas, where he ran his own studio for a few years. He decided he could earn a lot more money elsewhere and headed for the Northwest, where he was to become one of the foremost Western pioneer photographers.

He married Myrtle Louise Peck (1861–1919) in 1884 in Bourbon County, Kansas. In the summer of 1888, the couple moved to Portland, Oregon, and by 1891, Gifford was operating a successful photography studio. The Panic of 1893 forced him to move his business to his home, where he improved on his techniques. By his own account, he was the first photographer in the city to make enlargements using an electric bulb rather than natural light sources, allowing him to make large-format prints indoors at any time of day and regardless of weather conditions.

In 1894, Gifford partnered with Herbert Hale, a local photographer with a strong background in landscape photography. With Gifford’s enlargement setup and printing mastery, the Gifford and Hale studio became very profitable. The same year, he and Myrtle had a son. Journalist William Gladstone Steel invited Gifford to join and photograph an expedition to Crater Lake in 1896 as part of his campaign to promote the lake and its surroundings as a national park. Gifford’s photographs from the expedition were published in several newspapers and magazines.

When Gifford’s partnership with Hale dissolved in 1897, he moved his family to The Dalles so he could more closely photograph the Columbia River, especially nearby Native communities. He was noted for his photographs of landscapes but also for his portrait photos. He photographed wide areas of Oregon, including Central Oregon.

Myrtle Peck Gifford died in 1919 after a long illness. In October of that year, he married Rachel Morgan (1877–1973), a former schoolteacher from The Dalles. He retired in 1920, and the couple moved to a rustic log cabin in Salmon Creek, Washington, which they named Wa-ne-ka after one of Gifford’s most famous photographs of the sun setting over the Columbia.

Benjamin Gifford died on March 5, 1936. He was buried in Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. His son Ralph Gifford took over his father’s business in Portland.

Steve Lent is a Crook County historian. He can be reached at 541-447-3715.