Shelton man, Tennessee

A photo of a Shelton man. From The Sam A. Feltner Photo Archive
In 2009 an archive of over 1100 glass plate photographic negatives taken by Sam A. Feltner, a resident of Bumpus Mills, came to light. He photographed local individuals, couples, families, etc., mostly during the 1910 - 1925 time period. It appears most of his work was in Districts 3, 4 & 5 of Stewart County. ( Big Rock, Bumpus Mills, & Indian Mound) Over 1800 images are in the archive. Sam was quite an entrepreneur. Not only did he take & sell photographs, but he was an optometrist & watch repairman as well.At one point he also sold penny postcards.
Duane was able to copy these plates & convert them to positive images.. The entire digitized archive has been donated to the Stewart County Public Library & the Stewart County Historical Society.
Unfortunately, the plates were not properly stored over the years & moisture damaged many of the plates. However, most of the damage is limited to the edges so the people in the center of the image are still recognizable.
We hope that as more & more people view the archive, more identifications will follow.