Huntington: The Levi Holley Stone Collection

By: John Witek and Deborah Novak

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Synopsis: A flea market discovery that became an art museum sensation, this collection of photographs by Levi Holley Stone presents the city of Huntington, West Virginia, as it has never seen before. Stone's lens reveals a city of contrasts: a blend of broad boulevards and crumbling alleys, a mix of monuments and mud. It is a place where cars share the road with horses, roughnecks loiter in pool halls, and theatergoers enjoy extravagant musicals direct from Broadway. Newcomers flocked to this commercial hub on the Ohio River, and Stone's images of steamboats, trains, and motorcars show how they traveled. He captured the river, too, when it was frozen enough to walk across and furious enough to drown the city more than once. Stone was born in Huntington in 1898, and he photographed his hometown obsessively. Even his closest friends never knew that the photographs they took for granted were sensitive works of art.