Leo Beachy Photography

Born in 1874 Leo Beachy was a schoolteacher and poet who at the age of thirty-one, turned to photography to express his love of the environment and his community. With dogged persistence he photographed the hillsides of western Maryland while teaching himself to see the extraordinary beauty of the world around him.

Fighting through a crippling illness Beachy was compelled to reflect what he saw in the everyday life of his community. Upon his death in 1927 tens of thousands of his glass plate negatives were destroyed. The only ones known to remain locally are the 2887 plates contained in this archive.

Over the thirty years since the discovery of these glass plate negatives only a few hundred of the almost twenty eight hundred pictures have ever been printed. This is the first time that the entire collection is viewable in any form. These pictures taken between 1905 and 1927 are an expressive and eloquent window into lives of Garrett County’s past and represent the life’s work of Leo J. Beachy.

The photographs in the collection range from individual studio portraits to beautiful and expansive landscapes. This archive allows the entire community to share the visual, artistic and cultural heritage of Garrett County.

Leo Beachy Galleries

Click here to view the galleries of the Leo Beachy images.