Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum unveils exhibit on photographer Russell Werner Lee

The Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum has put together an exhibit on Ottawa-born photographer Russell Werner Lee, who is best known for his work documenting the Great Depression with the Farm Security Administration.

Lee was born in Ottawa to parents that were divorced by the time he reached the age of 6, and his mother died shortly thereafter. His guardianship was passed from his grandmother to the famed Milton Pope, to Horace Hull.

He purchased his first camera, according to the exhibit, because he wasn’t the best at painting while his wife Doris was excelling. Lee’s documentation of how people lived during the Great Depression led him to developing class consciousness, according to a biography by F. Jack Hurley cited through much of the exhibit.

“I got interested in what was going on around the Woodstock (New York) community,” Russell said, according to Hurley. “I went to actions where poor people were selling off all of their household goods. I went to a local election and photographed it at night using the Contax and open flash. I tried my hand at a county fair. That spring, I went down to Pennsylvania with some friends and photographed the bootleg coal mines.”

Lee’s photos and much more information on his work and his family history is available at the Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum, 1100 Canal St., Ottawa. It is open on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Call 815-431-9353 for more information.