E.H. Schlessman, Commercial Photographer

During the first quarter of the twentieth century, Edward H. Schlessman was a commercial photographer in Sandusky. On his World War I Draft Registration card, Mr. Schlessman stated that he was self-employed as both a photographer and a taxi driver.

Though he made his living by taking pictures, no known picture of him is in the historic photographic collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. 

Mr. Schlessman’s photos and postcards chronicled the everyday life of area residents. Ice workers and friends were captured on Sandusky Bay in this postcard from December, 1909.

     

In 1912  Schlessman took a picture of the Shamrocks, who were the champions of their baseball league that season.

Sandusky newsboys who were promoting the Saturday Evening Post were captured in this 1916 Schlessman postcard, near the stand of Norman Holzaepfel.

A young lady feeding two horses is the subject of this undated photograph.

          

When a tornado struck Sandusky in 1924, Schlessman took a series of photographs that showed how much damage the tornado had caused to the Sandusky area. You can see that many buildings were reduced to rubble.

       

The National Guard can be seen near their supply area in this photo taken on June 28, 1924.

By 1934 Edward H. Schlessman had left Sandusky. A legal notice which appeared in the September 22, 1934 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal stated that his last known address had been in Detroit, Michigan, and his wife, Mrs. Josephine Schlessman, had filed for divorce. Though Edward Schlessman moved away from Sandusky, he left us with a better understanding of local life in our community. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to view over one hundred photographs taken by E. H. Schlessman.

Sandusky Fire Department Youth Competition(?)

We don't have any specific information about the pictures below, taken by C. W. Platt, but it appears that it could be a friendly competition between two different stations of the Sandusky Fire Department in the late 1890’s. In each photo a daring young man is atop a ladder, while the other boys are all holding onto a fire hose. The top photograph was taken at the Central Fire Department on West Market Street.

Another team is standing in front of Fire Station No. 4 at the corner of Central Avenue and Osborne Street. The boys are wearing shirts labeled “Globe Clothing.”

Several vintage photographs and a history of the Sandusky Fire Department, as well as information about significant fires fought in Sandusky, are found in the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.