Theodor Clemens Wohlbrück Photographs

The photographer Theodor Clemens Wohlbrück (1879-1936) settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, as a young man. He set up a photography studio on Main Street and operated a successful business there until around 1911. Wohlbrück eventually left Worcester and by 1918 had settled in California. There he continued to practice photography and made successful use of the panorama photograph, which he had first used in Worcester, to capture portraits of whole classes of schoolchildren and the open spaces of the mountains and valleys of the Western landscape.

The American Antiquarian Society collection includes several hundred glass plate negatives from Wohlbrück's studio. The negatives are too fragile to be handled and have been digitized.

Images of Worcester

Many of his images capture the people and streets of Worcester as well as urban events, such as parades, celebrations, and presidential visits. This collection of 180 glass plate negatives have been digitized.

Access

An illustrated inventory of the collection is available.

The Personal Photographs of Theodore C. Wohlbrück

This collection of 164 glass plate negatives was donated to the Society by the photographers grandson. It includes images of the family and their travels.

Access

An illustrated inventory of the collection is available.

Towns in Worcester County Images, c.1905-1915

In addition to the glass plate negatives, the Society also holds a group of over one thousand printed proof photographs (both albumen and silver oxide prints) which includes images of forty-one different towns in Worcester County. These images, many of which were mounted and hand tinted by the photographer, focus on the landscape, roads and bridges of the communities across the county, from small and rural Dudley in the south to large and booming Fitchburg in the north. Dating from c. 1905 to c. 1915, these images include historic houses and churches, modern dams and bridges, and scenic ponds and dirt roadways. Many are captioned by Wohlbrück on the reverse and include a negative number.