Royal Carlock Washington DC Hand Colored Photograph

real hubert carlock (1899-1970) was born in Paris Crossing, Indiana. One of six children born to Benjamin and Ellen Carlock. After graduating from Indiana University, Carlock married Ethel Wohrer in 1917. He entered the US Army near the end of World War I, where he specialized in aerial photography as part of the Army Corps of Engineers. from the US and after the war ended, the couple moved to Washington DC in 1918 where their first daughter was born.

After his discharge from the army, Carlock got a job with a photography company called CO Buckingham who at the time was producing hand-painted photographs of major tourist attractions in Washington, DC. This explains the obvious similarity in style between the hand-coloured images of Carlock and Buckingham.

Ethel Carlock died in 1920 during an influenza epidemic, leaving Carlock a widow with a 15-month-old baby.

Carlock was fascinated by the architecture and national treasures found in our nation’s capital. He focused his hand coloring and photographic skills on subjects in and around the Washington DC area. The only photographer in his company, his black-and-white photographs were hand-painted in oils and sold to the throngs of tourists visiting our nation’s capital during the post-World War I era.

In 1922 Carlock married his second wife, Emma Clarke. In that same year he also left employment at Buckingham Studios and opened his own photography studio at 406 13th Street NW in Washington, DC. Carlock’s”Snappy Snap Store” he specialized in the rapid development of tourist films along with the sale of his increasingly famous hand-colored photographs of Washington DC landmarks and monuments, including the White House, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monuments, the US Capital Building and of course, the colorful cherry blossoms of Washington Working as a team, Carlock took the photos and Emma, ​​along with other colourists, tinted them by hand.

We have seen images of Carlock identified in three different ways:

• Signed matte photos “carlock” in the bottom right corner below the image, with or without a caption at the bottom left.

• Images without matte and framed with “carlock“is embossed in the lower left corner of the actual image.

• No markings on the image or mat, just a “carlockImage label on reverse.

Jane Crandall has reported that Royal Carlock was her uncle and that her parents worked for him at one time. She also reported that his mother, Julia Carlock, was one of Carlock’s colorists and would bring pictures home to color at night. Jane Crandall also reported that many of the signatures found on Carlock’s photographs were actually signed by his mother.

Royal Carlock kept his business running until the 1940s. It has been reported by collector Myke Ellis that the 1943 Polk Washington DC address book listed Royal Carlock working at 913 Pennsylvania Avenue. Even during the Depression years, when so many other photographers saw their businesses decline or go out of business, Carlock’s business flourished largely due to the consistently high level of tourism and the large and growing number of people working for the United States government. USA

Although his photographs generally sold best during the cherry blossom season, for several years Carlock also produced a Christmas card containing a hand-colored photo of Washington DC. These are considered quite rare among collectors today.

As with all other early 20th century. hand-coloured photographers, the advent of color film led to the decline of Carlock’s hand-coloured photography business. The main emphasis of his business was on finishing photographs until 1957, when he retired from the photography business to devote his life to conservation.

In 1962, his 40-year marriage to Emma dissolved, and in 1964 he married Grace Diane Knapp.

With heart problems for the last few years of his life, Royal Carlock died of a heart attack in 1970. His ashes were interred on a small island in a lagoon in the Isaac Walton League National Conservation Park near Gaithersburg, MD.

Carlock images are still relatively inexpensive and quite affordable. Their low price, good quality, and interesting subject matter will likely continue to make them collectible. The only limitation is that there are only about 10 different Washington DC scenes to collect. The next time you see a picture of Washington DC in a store or show, take a closer look. It will probably be a royal carlock hand colored photograph.