Born in England in 1854, George Beard immigrated to North America in 1868, joining the large-scale migration of Latter Day Saints to Zion. His voyage on boat, train, and wagon would take more than three months. Upon his arrival in Utah territory, his family settled in Coalville, where Beard remained for all his life.
As an adult he became a respected civic leader in the community. In addition to managing Coalville’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution, he also served as both a mayor and LDS bishop in the town, as well as a state legislator, choir leader, and producer and director of musicals.
By the mid-1800s, Echo Canyon had become a well-traveled path for groups of immigrants to the area, and the Coalville settlement (originally called Chalk Creek) was started in 1858. In the 1870s the town’s growing political and religious significance was solidified, as demonstrated by the addition of the county courthouse and the formation of the LDS Summit Stake. By the early 20th century Coaliville had a population of 1,200 and about 20 businesses that lined Main Street. Beard’s photographs beautifully capture the transformation of this community across 5 decades around the turn of the century.
George Beard’s exploration of photography was made possible by the dramatic changes in the medium in the late 19th century. This period saw the introduction of faster, easier, and more mass-produced formats, among them the dry-plate negative. This new process was much less expensive than producing daguerreotypes, and eliminated the requirement of a portable darkroom. The plates could be processed days or weeks after exposing them, rather than needing to be done immediately.
Beard was largely a self-taught artist, but he met or sought advice from multiple artists in the region, among them the noted photographer Charles Roscoe Savage. Using his photographs primarily as inspiration for his landscape paintings, it is interesting to note that Beard developed very few of his many negatives into prints. In fact, of the entire collection housed at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections of Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, which comprises 1,761 photographs, only 197 are original prints.
George & Alice: Partners in Alchemy
The work of pioneer artist George Beard creates a captivating portrait of the early days of Coalville. Beard’s embrace of glass plate technology skillfully and lovingly documented moments both public and private, and worlds both natural and man-made. Photography was not his profession, nor was it his primary artistic pursuit (he became more well-known for his paintings). Yet the care with which he approached this new and quickly evolving medium was clear. Alice was the name that he affectionately gave his camera, and together they were alchemists forging light, shade, and matter into powerful artifacts of awe and remembrance.
