Boardinghouse Guests: The Stereo Card Man
Despite many hours of hard work serving customers, it must have been rewarding at times operating a boardinghouse. Here you could become acquainted with new faces from a variety of interesting backgrounds. In the collection of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial is a register of names, while not comprehensive, of people who checked in as Julia Wolfe’s guests. While even the best historical researcher may not be able to trace the story of Mr. and Mrs. Smith from Birmingham, Alabama, some of the names in the book can be connected back past individuals. On page two of the register, probably in early 1907, we see the photographer Rupert Henry Scadin (1861–1923). He lists his home as Sapphire, N.C. Scadin had moved to Sapphire, near Lake Toxaway in Transylvania County around 1890. Perhaps he was in Asheville waiting on the next train or on business in town. And, maybe Thomas Wolfe enjoyed looking at some of his work.
In the Ramsey Library at UNCA is a collection containing 48 personal handwritten diaries, a photograph album, notebooks, documents, and approximately 1300 glass photograph negatives and positives from his works. Scadin was known to create images for souvenirs, stereo card views, and postcards. Scadin’s wife, Kate Queal Scadin (1861–1937), an artist, hand colored some of his photographs printed as postcards. Some of her diaries, along with those of their son Dewey (1898–1980) are included in the library’s special collection.
According to the library, Rupert Scadin was born in Michigan in 1861, and initially took photographs as an amateur in Florida and Michigan. As a professional in North Carolina, he took many photographs of lakes around Brevard, Dana, Hendersonville, Highlands, and Sapphire. He also engaged in farming at his home in Dana. His farm and orchards were damaged by the July 1916 flood, and as a result he moved to Vermont where he lived until his death in 1923.
See more of his story here:
https://historictoxaway.org/life-work-of-early-area-photographers/
http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/photo/scadin/default_scadin.html
