The final years of the Goodridge
Brothers' studio were played out in a world where blacks faced increased
discrimination, declining political power and segregation. The
Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to blacks. But in Plessy
v. Ferguson, 1896, the United States Supreme Court declared that
separating blacks from whites in public facilities was constitutional.
Yet the Goodridge Brothers Studio continued to serve all members of the
Saginaw community.
In 1991, Eugene Schreyer
remembered Wallace Goodridge taking his and his sister Erna's
confirmation portraits. He recalled the studio's small, neat
rooms filled with photographs and cameras and Wallace, the quiet,
dignified man with dark hair, who used a large view camera with a
cloth cover over his head to take the photographs.
Social groups patronized the studio.
In the early 20th century, many middle-class women belonged to informal
clubs and amateur theatrical groups. At least a dozen such Saginaw
groups turned to Wallace and his new magnesium flash process to record
their evening productions.
Wallace recorded the
more memorable events
of the Saginaw area from floods (photo: 1904 flood) to parades. In 1907 the studio was
selected to record East Saginaw's 50th anniversary celebration.
