Beals, Jessie Tarbox

▪ American photographer

original name  Jessie Tarbox 

born 1870, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

died May 30, 1942, New York, New York, U.S.

 American photographer who was one of the first women in the United States to have a career as a photojournalist.

      Jessie Tarbox moved to Williamsburg, Massachusetts, at age 18 to make her living as a schoolteacher. After nearly 10 years of teaching, she quit and devoted herself to photography, which she had been exploring in her free time. In 1897 she married Alfred Beals, and the couple collaborated as itinerant photographers, with Jessie taking pictures and recruiting clients and Alfred handling the darkroom duties. In 1900, when Jessie Beals's photographs of a Vermont fair were published in local newspapers, she earned the distinction of being the world's first woman news photographer.

      In 1901 she landed a job as a staff photographer for the Buffalo Courier. Beals's determination took her to St. Louis, Missouri, where the 1904 World's Fair was being held. Despite encountering some initial resistance as a female photographer, Beals obtained a permit to document the exhibits. Her photographs of the fair appeared in several important national periodicals. In 1905 she and her husband moved to Greenwich Village in New York City and established a studio. Having become a polished professional, Beals had no shortage of work and became well known as an urban photographer. She documented many of New York's architectural icons and used her camera to capture the “soul of New York” by visiting Chinatown, Central Park, and the Lower East Side and by choosing subjects that ranged from slum children to socialites.

      In 1917 Beals and her husband divorced. She then continued to work as a professional photographer while rearing their daughter alone. During the 1920s Beals began photographing the gardens and homes of the wealthy and publishing her work in national gardening magazines. She experienced hard times during the Great Depression and eventually died in poverty at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

Additional Reading

Alexander Alland, Sr., Jessie Tarbox Beals: First Woman News Photographer (1978).

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