Harry Whittier Frees (1879–1953) was an American photographer who created novelty

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as woo ...

s, magazine spreads, and

children's books A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younge ...

based on his photographs of posed animals.

Early life

Frees was born in

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...

, in 1879, after which his family moved to

Oaks, Pennsylvania Oaks is an unincorporated community located in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The community is 18 miles (30 km) northwest of Philadelphia and its boundaries are defined in large part by the village's position at ...

Work

He dressed the animals and posed them in human situations with props, often with captions; these can be seen as progenitors of modern

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s. On the choice of cats for his photos Frees states in his book ''Animal Land on the Air'': He used 1/5th of a second exposures and held the animals in position using stiff costuming, pins, and forks. He worked three months out of the year, since making the images was stressful. Frees is thought to have shot the uncredited photographic illustrations for children’s author Eulalie Osgood Grover’s 1911 educational children's book, ''Kittens and Cats: A First Reader''. In 1937 he was working in Audubon, assisted by a housekeeper who made the animal costumes.

Personal life

He remained single and spent much of his life caring for his parents; after they died he moved to

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a popu ...

Death

Frees committed suicide in 1953 after being diagnosed with cancer.

References

* ''Cats, Dogs & Other Rabbits: The Extraordinary World of Harry Whittier Frees'' by Harry Whittier Frees and Sylvie Treille, Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2006. * בר, ראם:
חיות בלבוש אדם ומסורות חזותיות בשירי אמא אווזה של הארי ויטייר פריס

עיונים בספרות ילדים 20
(תשע″א, 2011) עמ′ 55-16. This Hebrew article focuses on Frees′ photographs for "The Animal Mother Goose" and presents their design techniques, from straightforward mimicry of previous illustrations, through adherence to traditional iconography, to a parody on popular American visual motives not otherwise related to the rhymes. It includes a review of anthropomorphic animals in art, their photographic versions and their becoming a feature of children's literature.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frees, Henry Whittier American illustrators People from Reading, Pennsylvania American photographers 1879 births 1953 deaths Artists from Pennsylvania 1953 suicides