Frank L. Anders Photograph Collection

Collection

Identifier: Photo 477

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Frank L. Anders Photograph Collection is the amalgamation of two separate donations by his children. The first donation in 1966 was part of an extensive manuscript collection that was processed as Mss 1417. These images generally document Anders’ involvement with the building of the North Dakota capitol in the 1930s. The later images were donated by his daughter in 1996 and are primarily related to Camp Grafton, home of the North Dakota National Guard. Initially the two accessions were maintained as two separate photograph collections. They are now joined as one collection together with the 2008 stereograph accession, organized into five series: Camp Grafton, General, North Dakota Capitol, Stereographs, and Negatives. Within the Camp Grafton Series the images have been organized into six subject files: Construction, Equipment, Buildings, Tents, Troops, and Water Treatment Plant. A majority of these photographs were Photo 477 Frank L. Anders Photograph Collection Page 3 of 5 taken in the 1920s when Anders was the engineer for the improvements at Camp Grafton. The Construction File (3 prints, 4 scanned prints, 25 negatives) includes images of the buildings at Camp Grafton, shown during various stages of their construction with numerous images of the Rifle Range. The Equipment File (5 prints, 1 scanned print, 6 negatives) contains images of trucks, horse-drawn guns and other tracked vehicles that were used by the Camp Grafton personnel. The Buildings File (3 prints, 12 negatives) includes images taken from many different angles as well as of many different buildings at Camp Grafton. The Tents File (5 prints, 5 scanned prints, 21 negatives) documents how troops at Camp Grafton spent their nights. It also includes views of the inside of tents, different tent styles, the erection of large tents and also the tents in relation with the rest of the camp. The Troops File (7 prints, 2 scanned prints, 28 negatives) shows troops in various stages of training and leisure. They give a good overview as to how life was at Camp Grafton. The Water Treatment Plant File (3 prints, 5 negatives) is exterior views of the water treatment plant at Camp Grafton. The General Series includes six files, beginning with four copy photographic prints of Frank Anders, from young adult to retirement. The other files include: Fargo Buildings, Great Northern Railway Exhibit, Miscellaneous, Rivers & dams, and Soldiers in the Philippines. The Fargo Buildings File (2 scanned prints, 4 negatives) contains images of St. John’s Hospital, the nurses’ residence at St. John’s, the rear view of the house at 1301 South 13th St., and a large building with a tower. The location of the towered building is unknown. The Great Northern Railway Exhibit File (5 prints, 5 negatives) shows historic locomotives, passenger cars and a crowded street looking towards a parade. Mr. Anders is standing by a locomotive on one of the prints. They were taken at the Great Northern Depot in Fargo. The Miscellaneous File (2 scanned print, 2 negatives) includes an image of people saying goodbye to troops on a train and an image of a crowd on the platform of the Northern Pacific Train Depot in Fargo. The Rivers and Dams images (12 images on 43 sheets) possibly were taken as part of a study of water needs in the state. It includes images of the Sheyenne and Missouri rivers, Guernsey Dam, Devils Lake, and a dry lake bed. The one photograph from the Philippines is of soldiers at Baliuag taken on May 11, 1899 of ‘Youngs scouts of Lawton’s Div., 8th Army Corps’ and published in Harpers Weekly of July 7, 1899. Added (2009) are copy photographic prints of a elevated ten at Camp Dewey titled ‘Hotel de AndersGrafton’, and of three soldiers in open area, one of whom likely is Anders. The North Dakota Capitol Series includes forty-one photographic prints, most of which are mounted on yellow paper with punched holes on side. This would indicate they were originally in a binder and perhaps part of a large work that also included textual material. The most extensive portion are photographs taken in 1932 of the cornerstone laying of the new North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck. It includes images of U.S. Vice-president Curtis, guests and crowd at the event, speakers including Indians, and Governor George F. Shafer turning soil with spade. The second folder includes group images of the North Dakota Capitol Building Commission, prints of several different architectural renderings of proposed capitol, a series of image of testing the soil on building site, and view of the completed capitol. The Stereograph Series includes twenty stereograph prints that were taken of American troops in the Philippine Islands. Frank Anders apparently acquired them while he was stationed in the Philippines and some of them have notes from him on them. Each print is copyrighted in 1899 or 1900 by B.W. Kilburn or Underwood and Underwood. They have been organized into six topical files: Buildings and sites, Soldiers at rest, Soldiers going to war, Dead and wounded soldiers, Soldiers on the battlefield, and Native people. The Buildings and sites file (5 prints) has images of a church at Guadalupe, Malate Place with a Queen Isabella statue, a gateway through a parapeted wall near Old Manila, a church at San Pedro Macati, and a view from a tower in the church of Bmondo. The Soldiers at rest file (4 prints) contains photographs of North Dakota volunteers and other troops resting in various camps. The Soldiers going to war folder (2 prints) has images of the 24th Colored Infantry landing and the 17th Infantry going to the front lines. The Dead and wounded soldiers file (3 prints) is of the aftermath on a battlefield, inside an army hospital in Manila, and of sick and wounded eating dinner in an army hospital in Manila. Soldiers on the battlefield (5 prints) has images of Kansas and South Dakota soldiers lined up on the front line ready to shoot and a battery team that has their cannon set on a target. The Native people file (1 print) is of a native woman who has posed for her picture. The Negative Series includes eighty-three 5½ in. x 3¼ in. nitrate negatives. They were part of the later accession and deal primarily with Camp Grafton. The negatives have been integrated into the Institute’s general 5x7P negative series, numbers 59 through 168. If there is a corresponding print or scanned image that information has been cross-referenced on both the negative sleeve and the print. The negatives have been arranged in the same topical file sequence as the print collection. Not all the negatives have corresponding prints. For some of the more significant negatives, scanned paper prints were made and integrated into the print collection for reference purposes. The only identifications that came with the collection were several handwritten notes made by the donor which have been retained.

Dates

1899-1900, 1920s-1960s

Creator

Anders, Frank L., 1875-1966. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Institute.

Copyrights

The Institute owns the copyright to those images taken by Mr. Anders.

Biography

Frank Lafayette Anders was born November 10, 1875 at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory to Frank and Anna Anders who were stationed there with the Infantry. The next year, after his father was discharged, the family moved to Fargo where his father died in 1890 of wounds suffered in the Civil War. Mr. Anders, at 15, then left school to work as a call boy for the Northern-Pacific Railroad and later learned the machinist’s trade in their shops. In 1894 he enlisted in the National Guard and was serving his second enlistment when his unit was sent to the Philippines in 1898. There, as a member of Young’s Scouts, he won the Congressional Medal of Honor (at his death he was the oldest living holder of this medal in the United States). In 1899 he returned to the United States where he worked for mining interests in Salt Lake City. In 1902 with only a seventh grade education and some time at Dakota Business College (1895) he decided to attend Ripon College in Wisconsin, and in 1906 was awarded the first scholarship given by the University of Wisconsin, where he studied Civil Engineering. He was chief engineer with a Utah Smelting Corporation until 1909 when he returned to Fargo. In 1910 he taught mathematics at the North Dakota Agricultural College, and from 1910 to 1920 he was City Engineer for Fargo, during which time he designed, helped construct, and operated the Fargo Filtration plant. In 1918 he was commissioned a captain in the Engineering Corps and stationed at Fort Dodge, Iowa where he wrote a history of the camp. Then in 1919 he went to Camp Funston at Fort Riley, Kansas where he was in charge of hospital facilities, also serving in Washington and at the Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan. From 1921 to 1932 he served as Receiver and General Manager of the bankrupt Lucky Strike Coal Company of Zap, North Dakota. From 1922 to 1932 he was Regimental Utility Officer and had charge of a five-year construction program at Camp Grafton. Camp Grafton was formerly called Rock Island Military Reservation but was renamed in 1921 for Lieutenant Gilbert C. Grafton of the 164th Infantry. General G. Angus Fraser was responsible for securing the funds for the building of permanent kitchen and mess halls, warehouses and a water and sewage system (engineered by Anders) in the 1920s. Anders also served on the Fargo City Water Commission from 1929 to 1931 and, 1932 to 1934 he was secretary and construction engineer on the Board of State Capitol Commissioners at Bismarck. He also worked during the 1920s and 1930s as an engineer on the promotion of the Missouri River Diversion project and was president of the Great Plains Development Association. In 1910 Mr. Anders married Mary Bertha Hargrave of Ripon, Wisconsin. They had two children, Marion and Franklin. Major Anders died January 23, 1966, and was buried in Ripon, Wisconsin. Major Anders was Senior Vice commander of the Legion of Valor, belonged to the Legion of Honor, Spanish War Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Order of Indian Wars, Army and Navy Club, American Legion, and Fargo-Moorhead Officer’s Mess. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Mining Engineers and the Society of American Military Engineers. He belonged to the Order of Scabbard and Blade and held the McKinley Congressional Medal. He was a Mason, Scottish Rite, member of the Congregational Church, and president of the Commons Club of Fargo, 1916. He was also president of the Society to Mark Custer’s Trail.

Extent

74 Photographic Prints (74 photographic prints)

83 Photographic Negatives (83 negatives (5½ in. x 3¼ in.))

20 Stereographs (20 stereographs)

11 Photographic Prints (11 paper prints (scans from negatives))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Provenance

Donated by Frank Anders, Jr., 1966, (Acc 1417); Marion Presler, Fargo, N.D., 1996 (Acc. 2438); & Marianna Presler McJimsey, 2006 & 2008, 2009 (Acc. 2780 & 2838, 2909).