A Day Spent Around Concord: 100 Years in Photos
- Emma Leuschner
- Feb 10
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 26
"A Day Spent Around Concord" is a photography tour by Dr. Joshua Eyre Hannum, created in 1924. It consists of 56 photographs of locations throughout Concord, Chester Heights, and Aston Townships and four slides of handwritten text detailing Hannum's day spent traveling around his hometown with his family. This photo album was donated to the Concord Township Historical Society and is a permanent piece of its archive. In honor of this collection's 100th anniversary, I recreated many of these images to show how this area has changed over the last century. While many of these structures remain, the landscape has undoubtedly changed. You may recognize these places as familiar Concord landmarks, or you may not. Some recreations are not precisely located but are general areas where the 1924 photograph could have been taken. Dr. Hannum's photography tour gives us an invaluable chance to see the effects of urban sprawl, industrialization, and modernization on a community over a century. In addition to recreating the photographs, I provide a brief history of the subject and an accompanying excerpt from Dr. Hannum's 1952 memoir detailing his childhood in Concord. One can hope that these landmarks of Concord's history remain for the next 100 years and longer.
Dr. Joshue Eyre Hannum
Dr. Joshua Eyre Hannum was born on May 5th, 1890, in Concordville, Pennsylvania, to Howard Hannum and Margaretta Bishop. He grew up in Concordville at several Hannum-owned farms: Tucker Farm/Dell Eyre, Pinewood, and Overfield (Moses Palmer-William Hannum House), all on Concord Road.
Dr. Hannum attended Pennsylvania State College, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering in 1915 and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering in 1920. He worked for Skinner Engine Company in Erie, Pennsylvania, from 1915 to 1926. He taught for a time at Purdue University in Indiana. Dr. Hannum was a research engineer for the Association of American Railroads from 1936 to 1937 and later for the Crane Company in 1938.
Dr. Hannum became the Dean of the School of Engineering at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now known as Auburn University) in 1938 and served until 1943. He then became a professor of mechanical engineering and the Director of Pre-Engineering at Auburn University from 1943 until his death. Dr. Hannum died on February 12th, 1960, in Opelika, Alabama.
Boyhood Recollections by Joshua Eyre Hannum, 1952
Dr. Hannum published a memoir in December 1952 about life in Concord Township during his childhood. The memoir contains 130 pages and chapters detailing his family farms, chores, pastimes, and family gatherings. The collection also has a hand-drawn map of the Hannum farms. The memoir is a permanent part of the Concord Township Historical Society archives. I pulled quotations from this memoir for each photograph in the tour.
Photography
Dr. Hannum likely used a Kodak Eastman Poco 4x5” plate camera to photograph his subjects in the 1924 tour. In his 1952 memoir, he writes about being gifted this camera in 1903 on his thirteenth birthday from his cousin “Uncle” Samuel Stockton Horner.
“Uncle Stock gave me on my thirteenth birthday a good camera which he was no longer using, an Eastman “Poco” using 4 inch by 5 inch plates, with a folding wooden tripod which I still have, six plate holders, and a carrying case, all in good condition … when Uncle Stock gave me the Poco can be established as the year 1903 by the dates on the first pictures I took with it … they are marked “ J E H ‘03” (Hannum, p. 106-107).
A Note:
I am not a professional surveyor, photographer, or historian. This project aims to show the change in an area over a century. The photographic angles and locations may not be exact for every recreation. Instead, they show the general area where the 1924 photograph was taken. Many of the 2024 photographs were taken from main roads.
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