Love is in the Air

In 1929, Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Reeding celebrated their "sixtieth honeymoon anniversary" with a flight from their hometown of Breckenridge to neighboring Abilene. The two stepped aboard the Braniff Fairchild aircraft wearing their Sunday best. The radiant couple belie their age -- he in his eighty-eighth year, she a mere eighty years young. Pioneer commercial photographer, Basil Clemons (1887-1964), recorded the event with a warmth and naturalness that is typical of his work. The Basil Clemons Photograph Collection is comprised of some 18,000 images that document the oil boom town of Breckenridge from 1919 to 1948. Other subjects of his lens include the circus, fairs, Wild West shows, store interiors, street scenes, ranches, sporting events, fires, floods, and the oil field.

Basil Clemons Photograph Collection, The University of Texas at Arlington