Robert "Bert" Sadler, Jr. (October 31, 1875 – 1963) was an American photographer who captured daily life in at the start of the 20th-century in suburban America.

Biography

Sadler was born in 1875 in

Laurel, Maryland Laurel is a city in Maryland, United States, located midway between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore on the banks of the Patuxent River, in northern Prince George's County. Its population was 30,060 at the 2020 census. Founded as a mill town i ...

, to pharmacist Robert H. Sadler and his first wife Margaret Miller Jackson McCeney. He attended high school at Eastern High in Washington, D.C., and then began work in the clerical offices of the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

. In 1909 he began working for the

Post Office Department The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, established in 1792. From 1872 to 1971, it was officially in the form of a Cabinet departme ...

's Postal Savings Division, from which he retired in 1946 as a clerk in the Third Assistant Postmaster General's office. Sadler never married, and spent his entire life living in the house he was born. In 1905, while still working for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, he acquired an 1897

Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

camera and began documenting pre-

WWI World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...

life in the prosperous town of Laurel, then a notable stopping point between

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. He was a prolific photographer of the experience of a small town as it shifted from a mill town to a suburb, and captured the daily experiences of many of the town's residents and its bustling main street. According to critic Ferdinand Protzman Sadler's photographic subjects include the Laurel Park Racetrack, Laurel High School, and the Laurel Dam, as well as his friends, families, and businesses in the city's Main Street. While most of his images are of people and places within his hometown, Sadler also ventured into Gettysburg, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., to capture landscape subjects. Even though he never received formal photographic training, Sadler was meticulous in detailing the technical information for his images. The

Maryland Historical Society The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC), formerly the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS), founded on March 1, 1844, is the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland. The organization "collects, preserves, and interpr ...

acquired approximately 80 of Sadler's photographs in 1968. In the mid 1990s Sadler's gave his scrapbooks and 1,300 glass plate negatives on permanent loan to the Laurel Museum for the creation of the Sadler Collection, formally donating the works in 2007.

Exhibitions

* ''Bert Sadler's Laurel: Photographs from 1905 to 1917'', 1997 * ''Snapshots in Time: Our Community in 1910 and 2010'', 2010 * ''Behind the Bricks: 20 Years of the Laurel Museum'', 2016

References

1875 births 20th-century American photographers Photographers from Maryland 1963 deaths People from Laurel, Maryland {{US-photographer-stub