This month's photo is
of Walter
Louis Opper, circa 1918. It is just one example of a collection of
three thousand 8"x10" glass negatives recently donated to the Tazewell
County Genealogical & Historical Society by Mrs. Sidney Eslinger of East
Peoria.
According to his obituary in
the January 19, 1962 issue of the Pekin Times, Walter was born in
Wesley, Illinois on 27 October 1888, the son of Frederick and Magdalena
Spring Opper. He never married.
He was a retired
self-employed produce dealer and lived the last 16 years of his life in
Sunnyland. He was living at 218 Albert Street, Sunnyland, when he
died on 18 January 1962 at the age of 73.
He was survived by three
sisters, Katherine Stoecker, Bertha Herm, and Mrs. Sophia Ropp of East
Peoria and two brothers, Carlos of Carlinville and Elmer of Kingsburg,
California.
The society is currently
collecting donations to purchase a special scanner for glass negatives
and a state-of-the-art inkjet printer in order to preserve the images on
the glass negatives before the emulsion deteriorates any further.
For example, it took almost 2 hours to digitally enhance the above image
- changing the color balance and repairing scratches and other blemishes
from the negative. We hope to eventually publish several of the
photos.
The estimated cost of this
equipment is approximately $2000. If you'd like to help save these
images of central Illinois history, send a donation of any size to the
society at PO Box 312, Pekin, IL 61555-0312. Please label your
donation "Glass Negative Equipment". All donations are tax
deductible.
