New generation helps restore pictures of old Illinois city

HOOPESTON, Ill. -- A precious part of a Hoopeston family's history could have been lost if one battered shoe box had crashed to the floor.

But the box resided safely in an old white house next to the Hoopeston Public Library until last fall, when it landed in the hands of Lou Graham, the library director in this town about 50 miles northeast of Champaign.

When she opened it, Graham found something puzzling: Stacks of 4-by-6-inch pieces of glass with hazy images of days long, long ago.

"When I opened the box of glass plates, I thought, 'What do I do with these? Quietly put them in the trash?" Graham said, adding that simply wouldn't be her style.

Instead, she sought the help of teacher Dan Reed, who enlisted the help of James Rude, a senior at Hoopeston Area High School. He adopted the antique glass negatives and, with the help of technology, turned them into prints Graham recently showed at an open house.

Meanwhile, Graham talked with Edith Carlson-Deany, who helped unravel the mystery of the negatives.

Bathtub darkroom

The images had been taken by Carlson-Deny's father, Elmer Clouse, a farmer who used to develop his photographs in the bathtub.

Before he married, Clouse worked on the railroad, so some of his remaining photos feature trains and the places they took him, including downtown Chicago.

"He was not an ordinary Hoopestonite," Graham said. "He had been places, done things."

The display at the library featured Clouse's photographs, as well as some information about 1904, the date on some of the glass negatives.

Reed puts that date into perspective.

"It was eight years before the Titanic," he said.

Reed and Rude used modern means to bring the aging and damaged negatives back to life.

After scanning the images into digital form, Rude used GlobeCaster and PhotoShop software to sharpen faded images and recreate portions of scenes that nearly had faded into oblivion.

The project might have been fate for Rude, who signed up for an independent study class with Reed.

"He needed a project. And I just turned him loose," Reed said.

"They turned out better than I imagined. I think we really got the best we could," Reed said.

Rude is humble about his role.

"It's pretty cool I was able to do it," he said. "The coolest part was getting to use the technology. It was an honor to be a part of it."

Two of Clouse's seven children, 84-year-old Carlson-Deany and 90-year-old Ruth Bushong, both of Hoopeston, helped Graham identify some of the people and places in their father's photographs.

Carlson-Deany said she was flattered the high school kids went to such lengths to restore them.

"I was surprised. I didn't suppose anyone would be interested," she said.