"McLean, Will - Two 11 inch x 14 inch (color) photographs of ""Will McLean - Florida Troubadour"" (c. late 1980s) by photographer Bill Marder (Ocala, Florida). According to the BILL MARDER website: ""Bill Marder has had a photographic career spanning almost fifty years. He has specialized in all phases of photography including photographic processes, techniques, and the history of photography. Starting with his first twin lens reflex camera, an Argoflex in 1946, Bill Marder won a first class prize of $100. In Kodakís First Annual National High School Photo Contest. His photograph was published in the September 1946 issue of Popular Photography magazine that featured on the next page a tribute to his mentor and famous photographer, Alfred Stieglitz. In 1947 he enlisted in the U. S. Army and served as a photographer with the 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Division, in Japan. In Japan he won numerous awards in Army sponsored photo contests. Upon leaving the army, Bill Marder entered the graphic arts field as a photographer and graphic artist in color separations. Opening his first business, Mar-Color Inc. and then Creative Process Inc. during 1950 to 1970. His customers were national advertising, cosmetic, and fashion agencies. During his years in his own business invented numerous techniques related to the color separation field, among which were direct color separations for the newspaper and advertising fields. Bill Marder was also among the first to utilize photography as a method of photographing the advertisers merchandise for producing catalogs from controlling the beginning to the end of the printing process. In 1970 he moved to Hollywood Florida to manage Dukane Press (owned by International Silver Company), one of the largest printers with in house photography in the US Bill Marder worked with the first scanners and computers to devise control methods for photography and color separations. He later opened his own business, Creative Color in Ft. Lauderdale, which is still in existence. During the 1970s Bill Marder entered in the collecting field of photography, authoring numerous books on the history of photography. Most of these books were illustrated with his own photography. His largest book, Anthony, The Man, The Company, The Cameras, was a 365-page book with over 1000 illustrations and a forward by the noted historian and photographer Beaumont Newhall. It was co-authored with his wife and acclaimed in numerous reviews for its superb documentation, research and photographs on the history of photography. Another book from 1980, The History and Technique of a New Diffusion Process, utilized an instant paper negative process that Bill Marder pioneered and developed along with taking photographs using the large wood cameras from his collection in sizes 20 x 24 to 8 x 10. Bill Marder has traveled throughout the United States and Canada, lecturing on the history of photography, including the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. In the 1990s with the entrance of the first digital camera, Bill Marder was among one of the first to own, learn and develop techniques for use with his Mac computer..."
Scope and Content
Spanning a period beginning with his genealogical roots in the late 19th Century and detailing the private and public life of "Florida's premier folklorist" from his birth until his passing in 1990, THE WILL McLEAN FLORIDA FOLK MUSIC COLLECTION consists of family history and photographs, handwritten song lyrics and poetry, promotional posters, handbills, brochures and programs, recordings (various formats), artifacts (his iconic black wool hat, harmonicas, a guitar, etc.) as well as correspondence between McLean and his family, musical collaborators and colleagues and his longtime companion and champion Margaret Mary Longhill. This fascinating research collection reveals a complicated, creative and eccentric activist who lived to sing the praises of his home and to bring attention to the history of Florida and the environmental damage that threatened the ecology of this beautiful and fragile landscape. The researcher will find a vast archive of primary source ephemera that chronicles the 20th Century Florida folk music world and the talented musical pioneers who paved the way for future artists who now entertain and inform at the many folk festivals across the state.
Dates
- Creation: 1885 - 2000
Creator
- From the Collection: McLean, Will, 1919-1990. (Person)
Access
The collection is open for research.
Extent
From the Collection: 15 Linear Feet (18 Boxes, 1 Guitar and case, and 2 Oversize Folders)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Repository Details
Part of the Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida Repository
George A. Smathers Libraries
PO Box 117005
Gainesville Florida 32611-7005 United States of America
352-273-2755
special@uflib.ufl.edu
