Jordan Panoramic Photograph Collection - Accession 1767

The Jordan Panoramic Photograph Collection consists of two early twentieth-century panoramic photographs that document large-scale institutional and organizational gatherings in the American South. The images are dated 1905 and 1912 and reflect the use of panoramic photography to capture expansive scenes, collective identity, and public activity during this period. The first photograph, taken in 1912 by the Russell Bros. photographic studio and labeled “Panorama no. 871,” depicts Camp Pettus, a military training camp located in Anniston, Alabama. The image provides a wide view of the camp’s layout, personnel, and infrastructure, offering visual evidence of early twentieth-century military preparedness and training practices in the years preceding the United States’ involvement in World War I. The second panoramic photograph was taken in 1905 in Savannah, Georgia, by photographer M. Edward Wilson. It documents the Convention Head Camp, Division I, of the Woodmen of the World (W.O.W.), a fraternal benefit society prominent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The photograph captures a large assembly of members and reflects the social, ceremonial, and organizational culture of fraternal organizations during this era. Together, these panoramic photographs provide valuable visual documentation of military and fraternal life in the early twentieth-century South and illustrate the role of panoramic photography in recording collective events and institutions of regional and national significance.