Focus on independence

Female photographer ran successful portrait studio on Orange Avenue

By LESLIE CRAWFORD

Lou Bigelow was never destined to be like other women. Born into a family of independent spirits and eccentrics, she was encouraged to pursue her interests without the usual pressure to marry and have children.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on Nov. 4, 1884, to Lyman and Ada Bigelow, Lou Bigelow was the oldest of three children, which included sister Ada and brother Herbert. Her father was a successful portrait photographer who trained his children in the photography business. Bigelow was a talented apprentice and loved everything about photography. She followed her father’s career path, which eventually led her to Coronado.

As a veteran of the Civil War, Lyman Bigelow was eligible to homestead land in Montana on what had been the Flathead Indian Reservation. He decided to start a new life out West around 1910. His two younger children were both married and stayed behind, but Bigelow went West with her parents. The family opened a photography studio in Ronan,

« Wallis Simpson was one of Lou Bigelow's most renowned clients. This photo is dated from 1928, one year after she divorced her first husband, Earl Spencer, a Navy pilot and the first commanding officer of the North Island Naval Air Station.

Montana. A rarity in the Wild West, the studio was very successful.

In 1912, Roland Reed visited the studio. Reed was renowned for his photographs of Native Americans, and he and the Bigelows became friends. When Reed needed help with large-format printing at his studio in Kalispell, Montana, he requested that Lou Bigelow become his assistant. Her father, knowing that Reed would further his daughter’s photography skills, consented to the arrangement.

Reed received a commission to photograph members of the Blackfoot tribe for the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego opening in 1915. His life-size prints were on display and for sale in the Indian Arts Building at the expo and were a big hit. To keep up with the printing demand, Reed opened a local photo studio, which he outfitted with high-end camera equipment. In March 1915, a few months after the exposition opened, Reed and Bigelow arrived in Coronado to begin work at the Roland Reed Studio at 1115 Orange Ave.

But Reed wanted to get back outside and return to Montana. In November 1915, Reed sold the studio including all its equipment to Bigelow for a small down payment. Bigelow had found her home and became an independent businesswoman. She named her studio the Lou Goodale Bigelow Studio, changing her middle name from Adelaide to Goodale, her father’s middle name.

Bigelow’s photos had an ethereal quality to them. She had talent for understanding lighting and capturing her subjects with a glowing softness without losing detail.

Within months, her reputation as a portrait photographer spread.

To help with the growing business, Bigelow’s parents moved to Coronado in 1917. She bought a house at 1038 B Ave., just steps behind the studio. Bigelow married Ben Krout in 1921. He was a friend from St. Louis with whom she had corresponded through the years and the two eloped in Golden, Colorado. Krout quit his job as a traveling salesman and moved to Coronado to help at the studio, allowing Bigelow’s father to retire. That same year, Bigelow’s niece, Nadine Tilley, moved from Kansas to learn the photography business and work in the studio. Her parents, Ada and Oscar Tilley, followed a few years later.

One of Bigelow’s studio subjects was Wallis Spencer, whose husband became the first commanding officer of North Island in 1917. She visited Bigelow’s studio on several occasions while living in Coronado. Spencer later became known as the woman who caused England’s Prince Edward to abdicate the throne. She had divorced Spencer in 1921 and was married to Ernest Simpson when she became involved with Prince Edward. He stepped down in 1936 to marry her.

Bigelow’s studio had a 16-by-20-inch print of Spencer hanging in the studio for many years, chosen as an example of a smart woman, beautifully posed.

Bigelow herself connected with independent women of her era. She became friends with Eileen Jackson, society columnist at the San Diego Union, and Cora Moreland, press agent for the Hotel del Coronado. Moreland and Jackson sent work in Bigelow’s direction. In turn, Bigelow sent images to Moreland and Jackson who put the photos into news syndication. Bigelow wasn’t paid for the images she shared, but the arrangement helped bring a steady stream of rich and famous clients to her studio.

When the scandal with Prince Edward broke, Bigelow remembered the young navy wife and sent the print of Simpson to Jackson. The image was circulated internationally, giving Bigelow’s reputation a boost.

In an interview with the San Diego Union in 1936, Bigelow said of Simpson: “She is an attractive and fascinating woman. She is the most beautifully groomed woman I have seen with a pencil thin silhouette and infallible chic that made her a perfect model.”

Krout and Bigelow separated after 10 years of marriage largely due to Krout’s drinking problem. It’s unclear whether they divorced, but they remained close until his death in 1937. But even while they were together, Bigelow retained her last name.

Looking toward retirement, Bigelow, her sister and brother-in-law purchased a ranch and orange grove overlooking El Cajon in 1943. Oscar Tilley devoted his time to the ranch while the two sisters continued working at studio. In 1948, Bigelow decided it was time to retire. Jeannette Atkinson, who had worked at the studio for 10 years, took over the business.

Bigelow also sold her Coronado house when she retired. Years later, the house was saved from demolition and was moved to 234 Soledad Place, across from Coronado Hospital, where it still stands today.

Bigelow died in 1968. Though she left behind a legacy of work, a public portrait of the talented photographer does not exist. ■

The WENTLETRAP is creature with a narrow, delicate white shell. The shell has eight whorls of spirals with a purple tinge between the whorls and 12 ridges on each spiral. The shell gets its name from the Dutch word “wenteltrap,” which means spiral staircase. These small gastropods, which grow to about an inch long, live in intertidal waters along the West Coast from Baja California, Mexico to Alaska. During high tides, they feed on sea anemones by injecting them with a toxic purple dye that acts as an anesthetic. When they’re not feeding, they burrow into the sand as the tide recedes. Empty shells can be found in the wrack line where ocean detritus is deposited at high tide. ■

Class: Gastropoda

Order: Caenogastropoda

Family: Epitoniidae

Genus: Epitonium

Species: Tinctum