Evening Star Newspaper, February 2, 1930, Page 85

THE SUNDAY STAR, ‘WASHINGTON, e FEBRUARY 2, L 3 First to “SHOOT” the “BIG GAME BY 'NELL RAY CLARKE. ACK before the days when there were news photographers, a young girl with ambition to write newspaper interviews was told that if she would take along a camera and get a photo- graph of the person she was interviewing, she would have a beiter chance of selling her stories. So Miss Frances Benjamin Johnston sat down and naively wrote to an old friend of her family: “My dear Mr. Eastman: Please send me & camera which will take good pictures for news- papers.” That was before the days of half- tones. Thus the initial step in the career of the first news photographer in Washington was taken. In the course of her interesting career Miss Johnston has photographed many of the coun- try’s most distinguished and illustrious men. Many of these men she knew personally be- cause of the prominence of her family connec- tions, and consequently doors which might or< dinarily have been closed to a pioneering pho- tographer were opened to a bonny young woman with charm of manner who met Gov- ernment dignitaries on a social footing equal to their own. She had studied art in Paris for two years and consequently had a well devel- oped sense of what constitutes an attractive and harmonious grouping of people and things. As scon as she sensed her need for technical information concerning the taking of pictures, she sent to the photographic division of the Smithsonian Institution and was enrolled as a student collaborator, thus securing the scien- tific information she desired. There were no schools or courses in photography commonly avallable in those days. Building on that solid foundation, Miss Johnston quickly rose to the point where she was given published recognition as one of the best photographers in the United States; she has been decorated by the French government for the excellence of her work, and has received many medals and other marks of distinction from her own and other countries. Her collec- tion of historical American photographs has been addgd to the famous Huntingdon collec- tion of Americana at San Marino, Calif. She is also widely known for her rare collec- tion of photographs of famous gardens in America and elsewhere, MISS JOHNSTON was present at the sign- ing of the Spanish-American War peace protocol In the cabinet room at the White House on August 12, 1898, and made a photo- graph of the group around the table, includ- Ing such world figures as President McKinley, John Hay, Secretary of State; John Bassett Moore, A. A. Adee and Monsieur Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador, who acted on behalf of the government of Spain. Out of that in- cident grew one of the mwst amusing ex- periences of Miss Johnston's interesting career. ‘The United States was to pay $20,000,000 for the Philippine Islands. Miss Johnston had re- tetved an order from a national weekly for a photograph of the four warrants of $5,000,000 each, which were to constitute the purchase price. The Secret Service had strict orders that no photographs of those warrants wege to be taken, and the progress of the warramis M. Jules Cambon, French Ambassador, acting in behalf of Spain, receiving warrants for $20,000,000, in payment for the Philippines, from Secretary of State John Hay. At left: President McKinley delivering his last address. At right: The late President Roosevelt as lieutenant colonel in the Rough Riders. Pioneer Woman News Photographer, Who Viewed American History in the Making Through Lens of Her Camera, Turns Back to “Close-Up” of World Events and Leaders of Yesteryear. through the Treasury Department had been guarded with the greatest secrecy. Miss Johnston did not know this, however. So early on the morning that the warrants made their appearance in the office of the Secretary of State, she blithely tripped into the office of her friend, that Chesterfieldian gentleman, the much-beloved and poetic-minded John Hay, and told him that she would like a photo- graph of the warrants. “Why, certainly, Miss Johnston, if that is agreeable to his excellency,” he said, indicating the French Ambassador. Together they gravely assisted her to pin the $20,000,000 upon a clear space on the wall, and she took the photo- graphs. She carried her plates home and set about developing them. She had just finished her job and had gone from her studio into the dining room for her luncheon when an embarrassed but smiling operative from Chief Wilkie’s office loomed in the doorway and told her that he had had orders from the head of the United States Secret Service to take away the precious plates, Thus the only photographic record of those documents was destroyed. The officer was most apologetic, but it was revealed that it was a penitentiary offense to reproduce Government drafts in this manner, Miss Johnston spent some happy hours se- curing the first photographs of Admiral Dewey and his flagship, the Olympia, after his triumph at Manila Bay. The admiral was at times a severc old sea dog and he had clamped the lid down so tightly against photographers that there were few photographs of his flagship in existence this side of China, After the battle of Manila he came back toward home by way of Suez and had put into Trieste for a thorough overhauling of his ship. Miss Johnston, on the point of sailing to spend a Summer vacation abroad, was asked by the first photographic news syndicate to be estab- lished in America to meet the admiral and his 4rchie aed Quentin Roosevelt answering a rollcall with the W hite House police staff. flagship at Naples. Armed with a friendly card of introduction from the Governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, she made a beeline for Southern Italy and found the Olympia rid- ing peacefully at anchor with the smoke cloud of Vesuvius hanging above. By that time his ship had been polished up and the admiral’'s mood had mellowed, and she was received with the greatest of courtesy and given the entire freedom of the boat. She photographed the famous ship from stem to stern, from the engine-room to the crow's nest, with th> admiral, his staff, the Jackies and Marines in countless groups. Thousands of copies of the photographs she made at the time were soon afterward published in every American newspaper and illustrated magazine, HE says that she had a gorgeous time taking the dozens of plates which she sent back home. Nothing was too much for those Ameri- can gobs, the officers and even Admiral Dewey himself to do for that American girl who wanted to supply the waiting American Na- tion with photographs of its most recent heroes, Miss Johnston laughed in recollection at the difficulties she had in reloading and unloading her camera. There was no dark room on the battleship, so she was forced to descend each time into the torpedo chamber and shut here self up there to reload the plateholders, “I had little competition during the first few years I worked, and it got to be a sort of tradition in Washington that whenever any- thing particularly important was to happen I - was to be there,” Miss Johnston modestly exe plained. “I remember very distinctly when President McKinley took the oath of office, I was stand- ing with my camera on a little platform about as big as a pie-crust table, especially erected for the purpose, about 40 feet away from the President. “I was also fortunate In getting an excel« lent photograph of President McKinley while he was delivering his address on reciprocity on September 5, 1901, the day before he was shot at the Buffalo Exposition. This photograph has been immortalized in the memorial statue over his grave at Canton, Ohio. It is said to be the best likeness of him in existence. I also secured the last picture of President McKinley, for which he posed with his ever-kindly smile, He had just entered his carriage at the Span- ish mission to make a fatal trip to the Temple of Music. My photograph was taken at 3:50 pm. The President was shot at 4:07 o'clocky that same afternoon. “I have secured photographs of nearly all the ° famous statesmen in Washington, including such outstanding figures as Senator John Je Ingalls, who looked like a very wise grand< ’ daddy-longlegs, and of Thomas B. Reed, that famous statesman called ‘Czar Reed,’ who, as Speaker of the House, wielded so much ine fluence before the days of ‘Uncle Joe' Cane non. Mr. Reed, with his pink, round cheeks, looked like some sort of mischievous cherub, Continued on Twenty-g:cond Page