Acquisition Spotlight: Gliessman Photographic Studio Records

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By Spenser Bailey.

From the mid-1940s to the early 21st century, the Gliessman Studio provided Champaign-Urbana and Central Illinois with advertising, photographic services, and video production.  The studio, founded and operated by Perry Gliessman until his death in the 1960s, after which Bill Morrow took over for the next 40 years, served businesses and individuals alike, producing countless TV commercials, portraits, product photos, and wedding albums.

Arrowhead Lanes, 1962. RS 39/2/33, Box 19, Envelope 2.

To the Archives

When he decided to retire in 2003, Bill Morrow sold the studio’s physical space (on Walnut Street in Downtown Champaign) to the adjacent business, Esquire Lounge.  University Archivist Bill Maher, along with other local cultural heritage professionals, evaluated the studio’s archives and concluded that it had immense value as a record of life and commerce in the local community.  Accordingly, Morrow and the owners of Esquire transferred the material to the University of Illinois Archives.

An unidentified woman models a Collegiate Cap & Gown robe in 1980. RS 39/2/33, Box 63, Envelope 127.

Processing Process

In the spring of 2024, Archives Research Assistant Spenser Bailey started processing the material, which had been in various stages of arrangement and pre-processing since its acquisition.  He conserved, re-housed, organized, and described the collection, which consists of almost 15,000 individual items.  The bulk of these are 2 ¼ x 2 ¼, 4 x 5, and 8 x 10 photographic negatives, which were meticulously organized by the operators of the studio and, with few exceptions, remain in excellent physical condition.

Though most early Gliessman negatives are black and white, some are in color. This little girl and her life-size dollhouse are shown in 1957. RS 39/2/33, Box 8. Envelope 67.

This means that, with modern scanning technology, archives personnel can quite easily create high-quality, digital images and new prints of these images.  Additional content includes prints produced by the Studio, which highlight the various photographic techniques deployed over the years, correspondence and business records, a collection of advertising material from other studios and manufacturers of photo equipment, and a set of motion picture films produced by the Studio’s film production arm, the G&G Film Corporation.

This gallery shows day and night views of the Busch beer sign once located on top of 64 E. Chester Street in Champaign: 

Subjects

The Studio’s clientele evolved with the community.  Principal corporate customers in the 1950s and 1960s include Eisner’s, Grubb Advertising, Hollywood Candy, Hudelson Automotive, Illinois Canning, and Universal Bleachers.  Later, they did business with the Collegiate Cap & Gown Company, Illinois Bell Telephone, and the United Way of Champaign County.  One constant client, though, was the University of Illinois – they took photos for the Alumni Association, the Athletic Association, and other University entities.

This gallery shows a selection of football photos:

Want to see these yourself?

The images interspersed in this blog post represent a tiny fraction of the thousands of items in the Gliessman Photographic Studio Records.  You can view the collection’s database entry here and its searchable finding aid here.  If you have any questions or would like to view some of the material, contact the Archives at illiarch@illinois.edu.