Shrader Negatives
Joseph Shrader
Over 60,000 entries of the Shrader Studio negatives covering the years 1945-1979 are processed and searchable in this online database. Negatives for the years 1933-1944 and negatives made for Arkansas colleges are currently unprocessed and unavailable. Only a small portion of the entire collection 1933-1979, negatives of Arkansas legislators, is accessible digitally in the searchable Arkansas Photographs digital project.
This database is designed to help you identify if the Shrader collection contains images that pertain to your research. If so, you may come to the AHC to view the negatives and/or order prints. If you choose to order prints without coming to view the negatives first, please verify the content and type of images with the AHC photo archivist before ordering. This is necessary to ensure you are getting what you anticipate. While "Jane Doe," who you know was 35 in 1948 and is listed in the index, the image might actually be of her as a ten year old child. While the earlier collection consists of entirely black and white negatives, the later years include color negatives.
Joseph Shrader, born in Orel, Russia, in 1870, became a photographer in 1885. He immigrated to the United States in 1892. In 1910, he moved to Little Rock and opened the Shrader Studio at ½ Main Street. Shrader was joined in the business by Bertha Frank Shrader, who he married in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1900. When son Buddy joined the family, the Shraders began equipping him early in his life to join the family business. After a fire in December 1933, Shrader reopened shop at 305 Main Street with a staff of 8 to 10 coworkers.
In addition to photographing Arkansans of all walks of life, Shrader was for many years the official
photographer for the Arkansas Senate, Arkansas House of Representatives, the Law School, the Medical School,
the Junior College and Little Rock schools including the high school, Catholic High and Mount St. Mary's Academy.
See Businesses, associations, organizations, etc. photographed by Shrader for a full list of those photographed by Shrader and spellings used in the database.
Among Arkansas Leaders summed up Shrader's quality, "The human face tells the whole story of the life behind it. It is Shrader's art to bring out and dramatize the best in you as expressed by your face. That is the difference between picture taking and Shrader's artistic photography."