[C.1890s Photographs of Industrial Titan Jay Cooke at his Hunting Camp, Ogontz Lodge].

Four snapshot photos of a patriarch at play and other camp views

---

Photograph album leaves and loose photographs from American Civil War and railroad financier Jay Cooke’s hunting and fishing camp, “Ogontz Lodge,” Lycoming County, in upstate Pennsylvania. Four c.1890s–1905 photographs within show the elderly, white-bearded Cooke in a wide-brimmed hat posing with a sporting dog or with family or friends in a rural setting.

Through Cooke’s financial firm, Jay Cooke & Co. of Philadelphia, he was able to amass a fortune. He helped to finance government loans and bonds during the Civil War and afterwards became involved in financing the Northern Pacific Railway and the Horn silver mine in Utah. In 1865, after the war, Cooke built a palatial mansion, which he named “Ogontz,” in the Elkins Park neighborhood outside Philadelphia and around 1884 built his hunting and fishing camp, “Ogontz Lodge,” on Larrys Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River.

Mr. Cooke…found much enjoyment at “Ogontz Lodge”... Here great fires blazed cheerfully, while venison, pheasant and trout made the table a delight…Mr. Cooke could fish up the stream for eight miles without leaving his own preserves. He visited the camp three or four times a year. ... In his great cape cloak and his wide-brimmed, light grey, soft felt hat set over a gentle face adorned by a long white beard Mr. Cooke looked like the patriarch that he was. ...[T]he hat which was so often remarked by the young reporters who constantly came to interview him upon all manner of questions was of excellent texture and of costly make. Last season’s would be laid aside for his fishing trips. “None of your derbies for me,” he was once heard to say. “You can’t stick fish hooks in the brim.”¹

Nineteen photographs, possibly more, clearly show “Ogontz Lodge” and its environs. Among them are the four photos of Jay Cooke and photographs of “Ogontz Lodge” in 1906, just a year after Cooke died. Other photographs in the album may show the gardens and a fountain at “Ogontz,” Cooke’s house in Philadelphia.

The bulk of the album comprises numerous rural, suburban, and camping scenes. People are shown canoeing on a river, riding horses, posing with tennis rackets, or with shotguns. A view of “Bowdoin’s Pharmacy” (Kennebunkport, Maine?) and a picnic scenes showing the boiling of lobsters suggest some of the photos may be in Maine. Other photos show women relaxing outdoors, children with black servants or with pets, and other groups enjoying river and rural activities. Eighteen photographs show West Point cadets, the Battle Monument, and other views at the United States Military Academy.

Sold