Photography: George Lawrence Co. (1865-1938) - Group of people

Rare photograph bearing the signature George Lawrence Co. depicting a group of European immigrants. Approximately 204 people Signed at the bottom left. The photo is well-preserved although there are signs due to time. Dimensions: 65x39cm    With frame 74x48cm George Raymond Lawrence (February 24, 1868 – December 15, 1938) was a commercial photographer from northern Illinois. After years of experience building kites and balloons for aerial panoramic photography, in 1910 Lawrence switched to aviation design. The Lawrences descended from John Philip Lorenz, who emigrated from Germany in 1748. George was born in Ottawa, Illinois, on February 24, 1868. He was the eldest of six children of Margaret Othelia Tritley and Michael B. Lawrence. Michael was a farmer in LaSalle County and a carpenter. Within a few years, the family moved sixty miles east to a farm in Kankakee County. George went to grade three in the nearby town of Manteno, Illinois. He also attended St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Manteno. Around 1890, he moved to Chicago and began working at the Abbott Buggy Co. plant in Auburn, Illinois. [1] There, he invented a method for attaching iron rims to wooden wheels. In 1890, Lawrence married Alice Herenden and they had two children: Raymond W. Lawrence and George Lee Lawrence. In 1891, he opened The Lawrence Portrait Studio on the corner of Yale Avenue and 63rd Street, sharing space and expenses with fellow photographer Irwin W. Powell. In the mid-1890s, Lawrence perfected the use of "torch photography", which was the norm until light bulbs were invented years later. [2] In 1900, he built the world's largest camera to take a photograph of the Alton Limited train, owned by the Chicago & Alton Railway. The camera weighed 640 kg and used a negative of 4.5' × 8'. The photograph was taken for the Exposition Universelle of 1900 (Paris Exposition of 1900) in Paris, France, and won "The World Grand Prize". He also made innovations in areas of aerial photography such as ballooning and camera kites.