The rich lumber heritage of Warren County will be celebrated in the next show at the Crary Art Gallery.

“Wood on Glass” includes 16 large-format black and white prints made from glass negatives of photographs used to capture lumbering in Pennsylvania. The photographs were taken by William T. Clarke (1859-1930) of Rochester, N.Y.

The exhibit was displayed at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in the spring of 2011 and is now a traveling show.

Clarke chronicled the lumber industry and its dramatic impact on north central Pennsylvania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Not well-known and a long forgotten itinerant photographer, his evocative legacy is showcased in this dramatic collection of custom prints made from glass plate negatives. Clarke’s images graphically illustrate the epic transformation of the Commonwealth’s forests and ways of life between ca. 1890 and 1917. The prints themselves are remarkably detailed in high contrast black and white.

Produced by The State Museum, the “Wood on Glass” exhibit was co-curated by Archivist Linda Ries with photo historians Ronald E. Ostman and Harry Littell who were scholars-in-residence at the State Archives in 2005 to document Clarke’s photography. Since discovering a cache of Clarke’s original glass plate negatives in upstate New York, Ostman and Littell whose work on Clarke has been featured in Smithsonian Magazine have collaborated to draw attention to the photographer’s collections and are authoring a book to interpret the photographer’s vast visual legacy, according to Steve Manginell, outreach coordinator for the Pennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region, who is bringing this collection to Warren.

The photographs are “typical of what happened throughout the lumber heritage region,” Manginell said. They include images of workers, bark shelters and railroad tracks that carried lumber from Pennsylvania to the entire United States.

“This is where all the lumber came from,” Manginell said. “We built this country.”

A few years ago, the Lumber Heritage Region, a historical preservation and outdoor recreation organization, acquired the exhibit from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to make it available to the people of the region. The Crary Art Gallery is proud to bring it to Warren this month, said show coordinator Ines Nelson of the Crary Art Gallery Board.

“We are honored to be part of the effort the Lumber Heritage group is putting forth,” Nelson added. The Crary expects the show to have a wide interest, including school tours and groups of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts visiting.

Mike Wennin, Lumber Heritage Executive Director’s excitement over this show is contagious, “We have had people identify family members in these photographs,” he said. “Making these kinds of connections and bringing to life an era long gone is what it’s all about.” Wennin will have several more prints to display Saturday as well as cameras of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when he give the gallery talk at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, during the show opening, from 6 to 8 p.m. Wennin will describe the process of the large-format “negatives” and will demonstrate the 1901 Korona Dry Plate Field Camera like the one used by Clarke. The public is encouraged to attend. Wennin also will talk about the dry-plate photograph process

Entrance to the Crary is always free. Hours are noon to 6 p.m. Thursday, noon to 8 p.m. Friday, noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. This show will run until Oct. 27. The gallery is located at 511 Market St.