Working Waco: Gildersleeve’s Window to Local Life

Fred Gildersleeve came to Waco in the first years of the new twentieth century, where he began his photography business in 1905. Gildersleeve was well known in the community for his personality and motorbike, in addition to his photography skills. For almost four decades, Gildersleeve photographed major events as well as daily local life in Waco. He was one of the first photographers to take to the air to capture aerial views of the city and Baylor University. His unique photos remain one of the few collections to document the early city of Waco in the twentieth century.

The Baylor University Museum Studies department’s class in Digital Archives and Digital Collections Management worked together to digitize a portion of the Lee Lockwood Museum’s Fred Gildersleeve holdings. The class curated this collection to showcase their work as well as Gildersleeve’s work in documenting Waco in the early twentieth century. “Working Waco: Gildersleeve’s Window to Local Life” presents selections from the Lee Lockwood Museum’s Gildersleeve holdings to showcase aspects of life in Waco in the early twentieth century.

The Museum Studies class would like to sincerely thank the Lee Lockwood Museum for sharing their collection and giving us the opportunity to further develop as emerging museum professionals.