The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-04-17
Who's Who Among
Women
Her Triumphs with Cameras and
Cats.
By MARY b. MULLETT.

Think of thirty gold and silver medals
and various certificates and salon honors,
all being Corraled by one young woman in
little Missouri town! 1t is astonishing
Ii proves that Emerson was right when
he said that you may live in the back
| woods, country village. or any old
place; but If you do something worth
\ while, the world will wear a path to your
! door. Those were not his words, but
! that's what he meant.
Miss Belle johnson was born in Men
dOta, III. She graduated from the high
school there before she was seventeen: a
| fact she describes as ''immaterial"-but
| it isn't. II shows that even as 4 young
| girl she was up and coming"
From high school she went to St
Mary's Academy at Notre Dame, Indi-
ana. Here she continued to break the
educational speed limit by graduating in
two years, and having done this. she
/ next made one of those apparently triv-
ial moves which prove to be the turning
points of a lifetime. She went to visit
her sister in Monroe City. Mo.
She hadn't been long in that little
! town dts population is only 2.o0W when
the local photographer advertised for an
assistant Miss Johnson applied. She
thought she'd like to learn retOuchins.
But that same old habit OF breaking
speed limits was hard to escape. Inside
OF week. she owned that studio. H.
stead of being the assistant TO the pro
prictor. the situations were reversed.
The proprietor became her assistant. Size
engaged him to stay for a year while she
herself could learn the business.
Incidentally, it is worth mentioning tina,
the one thing she went in expecting to
learn. is the one thing she never has
mastered. She doesn't retouch.
But, again apparently quite by acct
dent. she did something which was IA
more important than learning retouch-
ing Just to please her little niece. she
photographed that young instrument IF
Fate and Fortune with her pet kittens.
That sealed her future. She is now T-r
haps the most famous animal photog-
rapher in the country.
Not cats and kittens alone. but dogs,
horses pigs. ard other animals have
raced Miss Johnsons camera and given
her such charming results that medals
and honors have simply been heaped
upon her.
In 1906 she was the only woman. among
twenty-five exhibitors, whose work was
selected by the National Photographers
Association for the honor of the salon.
The following year she again scored the
same triumph.
Perhaps that sort of success seemed too
easy. At any rate. she did not enter her
work again for several years. By that
time. tine salon had been supplanted by
Year Book. Miss Johnson. of course.
got into that, too. She seems able. in
fact to compass anything she really
wants to do.
Another type of woman would have
been satisfied with the success she had
made with animal photographs and would
have gone on making them to the end
of her days. But with Miss Johnson. one
triumph seems worth while only as a
step to something else.
Having succeeded with animals she
proceeded to make the same record in
human portraiture. She has done wwon-
derful things in this line. Any old age,
from the cradle to the grave. furnishes
a subject for her camera. But the two
extremes perhaps make the strongest ap-
peal. At any rate, her studies of chill
dren and of old men have brought her
the greatest successes
While she will photograph any animal.
from an aristOcratic horse to a humble
lady porlIer mothering its family of little
pigs, she says she likes cats best. Her
kitten pictures have gone all over the
world. as calendars. cards and features
Of advertising literature" You probably
have seen them many times and delight
cd in them, without knowing that you
had 20 thank a young woman in a little
Missouri town for your pleasure.
Most people who make a reputation like
Miss Johnson's seem to think they must
rush Off to some big city to find a setting
worthy their ability. She has been proof
against this notion. II is true that she
has just gone into partnership in another
studio. But II isn't in New York or
Chicago. 1t is in Pittsburgh. Hams.
It's rather a pity that other successful
men and women 90 not prove to the
world, rs she is proving. that ability is
not matter of geography. Miss john
son not only gets her material from
these Western towns, but she brings to
them an interest. one might almost say
a means Of culture. they might otherwise |
lack.
For instance. when the new studio in !
Pittsburgh Kansas, remember: not Penn !
sylvaniat, was opened the other day, she |
showed a loan exhibition of splendid
Photographic work from all over the
United States ard even from Germany. |
Miss Johnson. who has attended the
State and national conventions not only !
as an exhibitor. but also as a demon
strator. was jystifiabIy proud of that ex-
hibition. She said that she had never
seen a finer one at State convention.
and had rarely seen a better one even
ut q national convention.
1t seems to me that this is one of the