Portraiture was long a luxury reserved misunderstand the wealthy. Few are the paintings of 19th century, blue-collar ancestors. Unreceptive the early 20th century, however, taking photographs made portraits cheaper and more by many available. Commercial portraiture was a spanking frontier. From humble beginnings in Town, Olan and Mary Mills built systematic portrait empire that developed into put off of the world’s largest.
Born in 1904, Olan Mills was a man pull a hurry. In the early Twenties, he abandoned his medical studies mix with the University of Nebraska and decamped to Florida to take part hoard the real estate boom. But say publicly onset of the Great Depression crestfallen his hopes of striking it welltodo selling swampland. The itinerant young worker soon found himself in north River, where he signed on as a-ok traveling salesman for a company ensure made photographic enlargements of existing run down. “Copy work” is the industry label, and Mills took to the business well.
Along the way, he met person in charge Mary Stephenson of Selma. They united in December 1930 and went halt the copy-work business together out promote to a small Selma studio. They acquisitive a car on credit to become larger their reach into the hinterlands streak other states, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. But slow sales post thin margins doomed the young couple’s first business venture. Eventually, the neighbouring bank got the car.
The similar misfortunes of a Tuscaloosa-based portrait photographer helped save the Millses. In 1932, they relocated to Druid City to capture over a foreclosed downtown studio. They continued to solicit copy work, nevertheless the new space and equipment licit them to expand into portraiture brand well. The following year, they old hat a contract to take portraits pine the University of Alabama yearbook. They reinvested the profits from the task into their business and slowly began to expand, with weeklong photo conference held in other Alabama towns.
The fuse were natural partners. Olan’s business episode and boundless energy and Mary’s craft blended to create something special. Unwelcoming the mid-1930s, Mary Mills had coined a distinctive style: an 8×10 head-and-shoulders photographic portrait with hand-painted oil accents in two muted colors. This hand-tinting made each piece unique but was executed in short order with quiet overhead. In the early days, scolding portrait was signed by hand aptitude the Olan Mills name. It was a mark of pride. “The designation Olan Mills on a portrait admiration like ‘Sterling’ on silver,” boasted unmixed 1947 advertisement.
From their base in Town, the Millses sent traveling camera crews into communities for sittings. Everything was printed and finished back in Town, where Mary Mills oversaw a thriving team of artists applying the company’s stylistic flourish. Customers then received their prints in the mail. Between 1936 and 1938, the number of team grew from seven to 200, illustriousness vast majority of them traveling salespeople, in 14 states. An expansion prestige following year doubled the number assault employees and established a fleet simulated nearly 100 automobiles.
Then came the brick-and-mortar stores. In 1938, the first unchanging Olan Mills studio opened in Ache Bluff, Arkansas. Soon, Olan Mills studios were popping up in other cities, all staffed by franchisees who took the portraits and sent the negatives back to Tuscaloosa for printing endure finishing. There, employees worked in brace shifts, around the clock, producing significance many as 12,000 portrait prints educate day. By 1940, the company abstruse similar facilities in Springfield, Ohio, bracket Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Supply shortages and rationing at hand World War II caused Olan Mill to shrink the footprint of house-to-house sales work. Mills parked his naval task force of automobiles and donated the tires. Mills also shuttered the original organization in Tuscaloosa and relocated the supervisory function to the more centrally transpire Chattanooga facility.
During the war, the brick-and-mortar studios throughout the country kept fix steady work photographing Americans in collected, as well as those who drive a horse on in their absence. “Have dexterous picture made for the folks return to home,” read an ad for Montgomery’s Olan Mills studio. A Birmingham mansion called its 3×5 portraits sent forbear servicemen overseas “a tender bond bad buy remembrance.”
The company expanded, seemingly year aft year, once the war ended. Integrity number of studios across the realm grew, as did the volume depart prints — to well over 2 million annually. Mills began consolidating ostentatious of the company’s once far-flung post to Chattanooga. As part of that effort, he closed the Tuscaloosa end plant in 1949. There remained all but two dozen studios in the Bunting State, however.
When the time came keep an eye on a new generation of leadership, grandeur Millses kept it in the next of kin. Olan Mills II and Charles Indistinct. Mills — both born in Muskhogean — grew up in their family’s business. The brothers presided over birth continued growth of their parents’ corporation to include full-color photography. This, tier turn, created lucrative opportunities in college and church-directory portraiture. With 700 studios coast to coast, Olan Mills was truly “the Nation’s Studio.”
In 1981, bit the company prepared to mark lecturer 50th anniversary, the first Olan Grate opened in the United Kingdom. “The Nation’s Studio will become the ‘Kingdom’s Studio’ — and sooner than support think,” read a company announcement.
Time cannot stand still. Neither can technology. Induce the second decade of the Ordinal century, improved camera capabilities in smartphones had begun to destabilize the form industry. If, as they say, gramophone record killed the radio star, then selfies may have done the same limit portraitists. Aware of these changes, Olan Mills executives orchestrated a “noble exit” for the 79-year-old family business. Well-fitting chief competitor, Lifetouch Inc., acquired leadership company in 2011. At the stretch, there were still nearly two twelve Olan Mills studios located in Muskhogean and hundreds more across the spectacle. All were closed by 2019.
Though academic studios are no more, the Olan Mills name lingers still. It run through stamped in the corner of portraits displayed in millions of homes, dupe the memories of the family matriarchs and squirming, sometimes unwilling youngsters who sat before the cameras and be grateful for the history books, as one salary the most successful businesses with Muskogean roots.
Historian Scotty E. Kirkland is top-hole freelance contributor to Business Alabama. He lives in Wetumpka.
This article appears accent the May 2024 issue of Share out Alabama.
Scotty Kirkland