Aune, Aasta, Miss.
Aune, Amante
Aune, Peter O.
Aune, Struck (1859-)
Aune, Petra (-1929) Portland
The studio was founded around 1890 by Peter O. Aune and his wife at 169 7th (Broadway between Morrison & Yamhill.) Previously, Peter had been working as a retoucher for Joseph Thwaites (q.v.) In 1890, Peter’s brother Struck arrived in Portland and he started photographing at the studio. In 1891 they advertised “Lady operator from Europe has arrived,” which was likely their sister Amante. A photograph of the Aune family posing in front of this studio is on the cover of Robert Brown’s “Nineteenth Century Portland, Oregon Photographers; A Collector’s Handbook”. During the 1894 floods, they produced a series of photographs of the innundated downtown streets. Peter left the United States to return to Norway after his wife died around 1895. He opened a studio in Trondhjem and won medals for photography at Stockholm in 1897.
Peter Aune’s brother Struck continued operating the Portland studio, with Stuck’s wife Petra and employees. They offered high quality portraits printed on carbon, platinum or aristo-platino. (aristo-platino was a collodion citro-chloride printing-out paper with a matte surface. The paper produced prints that looked like platinum prints. Collodio-citrochloride papers were the most used photographic papers between 1898-1910.)
From 1904 to 1918, the studio moved to the Columbia building at 365 Washington St. (corner of Park.) A portrait they took titled “Shy” was published in Camera Craft in March 1905. A photograph of their studio reception room was printed in The Cardinal on June, 1906. Struck Aune moved to Los Angeles in 1915. In September, 1921,, Struck formed the Aune-Ball Studio and bought out C Elmore Grove, moving into his old studio at 839 Morgan Bldg. In 1929, Struck’s wife Petra died, but the studio continued with the three children, Margarethe, Ringar, and Mildred. When the depression hit they moved to different rooms at the same building, in room 425. They were open through 1948.
Here is a list of the many talented photographers who worked for the Aune’s, please consult their individual listings.
Aerne, Robert, printer 1893
Birkin, Dazie R attendant Aune 1909
Butterworth, Charles, photographer 1899-1900
Gill, Esther A. printer 1904
Hawley, Edna M., retoucher 1904
Leonard, J Edson, photographer 1913
Scholl, Aemillan, photographer 1910
Tonge, John H, photographer 1901
Directory Listings
1890 PCD pg. 133 “Aune, Peder (sic) O, retoucher Joseph Thwaites, rms 111 N 8th”
1891 PCD pg. 160 “Aune, Peter O, photogr, bds 307 N 15th”
1891 POWI pg. 423 “Aune Bros (Peter, Amante, and Struck) photographers, 169 7th”
1892 PCD pg. 224 “Aune (Struck A, Peter, Amanthe Aune), photographers, 169 7th”; “Aune, Miss Aasta, operator Aune, bds Glencoe park”; “Aune, Peter (Aune), res Glencoe park”; “Aune, Struck (Aune) res Glencoe Park”
1893 PCD pg. 211-212 “Aune (Struck A, Peter, Amanthe Aune), photographers, 169 7th”; “Aune, Miss Aasta, opr Aune, bds Glencoe park”; “Aune, Amanthe (Aune) bds Glencoe”; “Aune, Peter (Aune), bds Glencoe park”; “Aune, Struck (Aune) res Glencoe Park”
1894 PCD pg. 171 “Aune (Struck and Peter O Aune), photographers 169 7th”; “Aune, Miss Aasta, retoucher Aune, bds Glencoe park”; “Aune, Peter O (Aune), res Glencoe”; “Aune, Struck (Aune) bds 686 E Morrison”
1895 PCD pg. 150 “Aune (Struck Aune), photographers 169 7th”; “Aune, Miss Aasta, retoucher Aune, bds Glencoe park”; “Aune, Peter O (Aune), res 686 E Morrison”; “Aune, Struck (Aune) res 546 Taylor”
1896 PCD pg. 148 “Aune (Struck Aune), photographers 169 7th”; “Aune, Miss Aasta, retoucher Aune, bds Glencoe park”; “Aune, Struck (Aune) res Glencoe park”
1897 PCD pg. 147 “Aune (Struck Aune), photographers 169 7th”; “Aune, Miss Aasta, retoucher Aune, bds Glencoe park”; “Aune, Struck (Aune) res Glencoe park”
1898 PCD pg. 148 “Aune (Struck Aune), photographers 169 7th”; “Aune, Struck (Aune) res Glencoe park”
1899 EO & P pg. 44, Portland Photographers “Aune 169 7th”
1899 PCD pg. 149 “Aune, (Struck Aune), photographer, 169 7th”; “Aune, Struck, res 569 Belmont”; “Aune, Amy, stitcher Fleischner, M & co., bds 124 1/2 Knott”
1900 PCD pg. 150 “Aune, (Struck Aune), photographer, 169 7th”; “Aune, Struck, res 569 Belmont”; “Aune, Miss Amy, bds 124 1/2 Knott”
1901 PCD pg. 124 “Aune, (Struck Aune), photographer, 169 7th”; “Aune, Struck (Aune), res 750 E Salmon”
1901 POWA pg. 284 Portland “Aune, Struck photographer 169 7th”
1902 PCD pg. 158 “Aune (Struck Aune), photographer 169 7th”; “Aune, Struck (Aune) res 750 E Salmon”
1903 PCD pg. 163 “Aune (Struck Aune), photographer, 169 7th, Tel Main 1635”
1904 PCD pg. 179 “Aune (Struck Aune), Photographer, 169 7th, Tel Main 1635”
1905 PCD pg. 176 “Aune (Struck Aune), Photographer, Studio 365 Washington cor W Park, Tel Main 1635”
1906 PCD pg. 172 “Aune (Struck Aune), photographer, Studio 365 Washington, cor W Park, Tel Main 1635”; “Aune, Mrs. Christine, res 370 E 8th”; “Aune, Struck (Aune), res 788 E Taylor”
1907 PCD pg. 236 “Aune (Struck Aune), Photographer, Studio 6th floor Columbia Bldg, Tels Main 1635 and A 1635”; “Aune, Struck (Aune), res 788 E Taylor”
1909 PCD pg. 246 “Aune (Struck Aune), Photographer, Studio 6th floor Columbia Bldg, Tels Main 1635 and A 1635”; “Aune, Struck (Aune), res 788 E Taylor, Tel East 3303”
1910 Or. pg. 160 Portland Photographers “Aune, C. Jr., 129 1/2 5th St”
1910 PCD pg. 144 “Aune (Struck Aune), photographer, Studio 6th floor Columbia Bldg, Tel Main 1635, A 1635”, “Aune Struck (Aune) h 788 E Taylor”
1911 PCD pg. 171 “Aune (Struck Aune), Photographer, Studio 6th floor Columbia Bldg, Tels Main 1635 and A 1635”; “Aune, Struck (Aune), res 788 E Taylor”
1912 PCD pg. 171 “Aune (Struck Aune), Photographer, Studio 6th floor Columbia Bldg, Tel Main 1635 and A 1635”; “Aune, Struck (Aune), h 788 E Taylor”
1913 PCD pg. 159 “Aune (Struck Aune), Photographer, Studio 6th floor Columbia Bldg, Tel Main 1635 and A 1635”; “Aune, Struck (Aune), h 788 E Taylor”
1914 PCD pg. 237 “Aune (Struck Aune), Photographer, Studio 6th floor Columbia Bldg, Tel Main 1635 and A 1635”; pg. 238 “Aune, Struck (Petra) (Aune), h 788 E Taylor”
1914 PCBD Photographers “Aune The Photographer Columbia Bldg. Main 1635”
1915 PCD pg. 169 “Aune, The Photographer, Studio 6th Floor Columbia Bldg, 365
Washington, Tel Main 1635, A1635”
1916 – 1920 not listed
1921 PCD pg. 108 “Aune-Ball Inc (Successors to C Elmore Grove) Photographers 839 Morgan Bldg, Tel Main 339”; “Aune, Struck (Aune-Ball Inc) 839 Morgan bldg”
1924 PCD pg. 282 “Aune Photographic Studio (Struck Aune), Portland’s Popular Photographer, 839 Morgan Bldg, Tel MAin 0339”
1925 PCD pg. 249 “Aune Portrait Studio (Struck Aune), Portland’s Popular Photographer, 839 Morgan Bldg, Tel Main 0339”
1928 PCD pg. 242 “Aune Portrait Studio (Struck Aune) Portland’s Popular Photographer, 839 Morgan Bldg, Tel BEacon 0549”; “Aune, Margt A photo Aune Portrait Studio, r 861 E 30th”; “Aune, Rinar R mgr Aune Portrait Studio r 861 E 30th N”; “Aune Struck J C (Petra M; Aune Portrait Studio) h 861 E 30th N”
1930 PCD pg. 184 “Aune Portrait Studio (Struck Aune) Portland’s Popular Photographer, Studio and Home Portraiture 839 Morgan Bldg, Tel BEacon 0549”; “Aune, Margt A Mrs. photo Aune Portrait Studio, r 201 E 86th”; “Aune, Rinar R (Ellen C) mgr Aune Portrait Studio h 1061 Shaver”; “Aune Struck J C (Aune Portrait Studio) h 6317 27th av SE”
1934 PCD pg. 126 “Aune Portrait Studios (Struck J C Aune) 425 Morgan bldg”; “Aune Margt T Mrs photog Aune Portrait Studios r 1149 SE 86th av”; “Aune Rinar R (Ellen C) mgr Aune Portrait Studios h 3555 NE Shaver”; “Aune, Struck J C (Aune Portrait Studios) r 6317 SE Clinton”
1936 PCD pg. 118 “”Aune Portrait Studio (Rinar R Aune) Portland’s Popular Photographers, Studio and Home Portraiture 425 Morgan Bldg, Tel BEacon 0549”; “Aune Margarethe T photog Aune Portrait Studios r 1149 SE 86th av”; “Aune Rinar R (Ellen C) (Aune Portrait Studios) h 3555 NE Shaver”;
1948 Portland Phone Directory pg. 292 “Aune” Serving Portland for 2 Generations” 3555 NE Shaver, TR-3455″
Mautz Oregon “Aune, 1890, Portland”
Photographer’s Imprints
“Aune, Portland Ore.” blind stamp on 5 1/4″ x 7 3/8″ card, also 7″ x 9″ card.
“Aune, Portland Or. U. S. A., Trondhjem, Norge” embossed front CDV, “Jacob Mathesons Gaard, Olaf Trygvesons Gade 14. Sondregad. Medalje Stockholm 1897. Aune, Trondhjem. Indgang Fra Olaf Trygvesons Gd.” engraved back.
“Aune, 169 Seventh, Between Morrison and Yamhill, Portland, Oregon” printed on front of 11″ x 14″ mount, 7 1/2″ x 9 1/2″ print of Flood of June 7, 1894 (OHS)
“Alerander (sic) O. Aune, Traveling Artist” CDV imprinted back (OHS study collection)
News Items and Advertisements
1891: “Aune, Photographers, 169 Seventh St. Ground Floor, Betw. Morrison and Yamhill. Lady operator from Europe has arrived.” Oregonian 3 November 1891. daily display ad, which has not been tracked for start and stop dates yet.
1899: “Aune Studio 169 7th St., Portland, photographs in carbon, platinum, and aristo-platino” The Cardinal, (Portland High School, June 1899, vol. 2 #10.
1904: “A wonderful discovery. The new method of photography. The violet ray lamp. Quicker than daylight. Mr. Aune, the photographer, saw this lamp at the St. Louis World’s Fair, and at once secured the same at great expense, and is now using it in all his work. This is the first time in the history of photography that any means have been discovered whereby high-grade portraits could be finished by artificial light. Studio. 169 7th.” Sunday Oregonian, November 27, 1904, pg. 5, col. 2.
1905: “Aune The Photographer, 169 Seventh St” with sample portrait. First American Photographic Salon, (exhibition catalog, Portland; Portland Society of Photographic Art, 1905)
1905: (photograph illustrated) “Shy by J. C. S. Aune, Portland, Oregon” Camera Craft, Vol. X, No. 3 March 1905, pg. 132.
1906: “Aune, The Photographer Columbia Bldg Portland”, with photo of “interior of reception room” of Aune’s studio. The Cardinal, (Portland High School Annual, June 1906)
1907: “J. C. S. Aune, the popular photographer of Portland, is expected to return from his six months’ trip in Europe about the first of June” Camera Craft, Vol. XIV, No. 5, May 1907 pg. 240.
1921: “Elmore Studio Sold. The C. Elmore Grove Studio of Art in the Morgan building was purchased last week by M. W. Ball of Corvallis and Struck Aune, formerly of Portland and for the last seven years a photographer in Los Angeles. The business is to be conducted at the same address under the name of the Aune & Ball Studio of Photographic Art.” Morning Oregonian, September 12, 1921, pg. 15, col. 6.
1923: “Aune 8389 Morgan Bldg, 4×5 1/2″ $8 per dozen, Selection of Poses” The Cardinal, (Portland High School, 1923,
1929: “Mrs. Struck Aune. Mrs. Struck Aune (Petra Tonseth), who had been a resident of Portland for 39 years, died June 26 at Good Samaritan hospital after an illness of two weeks.
Mrs. Aune had been keenly interested in many types of civic work. She was a member of the Americanization board, treasurer of the Northwest Poetry society, also a member of the Oregon State Women’s Press club. Mrs. Aune’s own writings have been recognized by these organizations for some time.
She has also been a long-time member of the Norwegian Bethlehem Lutheran church, at Fourteenth and Davis streets. She was historian of the Women’s Missionary Federation of the Pacific district, also secretary of the thank offering for Oregon Lutheran circuit.
Mrs. Aune, who was born in Noway, came to Portland in 1890 and married Struck Aune of the Aune studio. She is survived by her widower and three children, Mrs. Luther Tisdale and Rinar Aune of this city, and Mrs Ivan Houser, of Clayton, Wash.; also three brothers, Cornerius, Harold and Birger Tonseth, and two sisters, Mrs. Jack Slippern of Los Angeles and Mrs. Albert Nelsen of Bellingham, Wash.
Funeral services will take place from the Bethlehem Lutheran church, Fourteenth and Davis streets, tomorrow at 2:30 p. m,. Rev A. H. Thorsen officiating. Services at Portland Cemetery will be private.” Oregonian, 28 June 1929, pg. 14, col. 3.
1930: “Struck Aune is one of Portland’s Pioneer photographers. He has conducted his photographic studio here for more than 40 years. Recently I received a notice from Theo O. Gladding, secretary of the Lang Syne society, to go up to the Aune studio to have my picture taken, as a group picture was to be made of the members of the Lang Syne society. The officers of the Lang Syne society are…
When I presented my card from the Lang Syne society a very charming young lady took me into the studio, handed me a magazine and told me to amuse myself by reading till she was ready. She fixed various lighting effects, turned on the lights, and mussed my hair up a little, so it wouldn’t look so formal, and, going to her camera, she had me pose in various ways to to see which would look best. I said ‘Tell me when you are going to take the picture’ which she promised to do. After about five minutes of looking in different directions, I said, ‘It takes quite a while to get me in the pose you like best, doesn’t it?’ She smiled and said, ‘You’re all through. I have taken quite a number of exposures of you and I caught you looking natural and not posing for a picture as you wanted to do.’
You seem to enjoy the work,’ I said.
‘I love it.’ she replied. ‘I couldn’t be happy at anything else. It thrills me to be able to make a record of a real person – to catch their thought and to get their character. People usually want to pose, and whenever they do they are bound to look stilted. You don’t look your best when you are trying to look that way.
‘I didn’t plan to be a photographer. I studied singing, but I believe the development of any art, whether it is singing or poetry or painting or sculpture, helps one in this work. My name was Margarethe Aune up to a year ago; now it is Mrs. Luther L. Tisdale. I was born in Portland and attended Washington High School. I graduated from the Polytechnic high in Los Angeles. I am one of Dad’s three children. All of us are in the studio with him. The only other photographer who has been in the business in Portland as long as my father is Butterworth. He worked with Dad and then later started for himself.
‘I am going to ask my father to come and answer some of your questions, but before I do so I want you to look at one of the best pictures I ever made, and at the same time it was one of the hardest pictures I ever took. It is a picture of Dad. I worked and worked on it, and finally, when he was resting a moment, he looked up with a smile of sympathy, for he knew how eager I was to get a good picture of him, and I caught that look of alertness, interest, and sympathy, and I got a real picture.’
A moment or two later Mr. Aune sat down with me and in answer to my questions said:
‘I was born in Norway, April 15, 1859. My father was a university man and well-to-do. I read so much about America that I wanted to come to this country and fight the Indians and kill buffaloes. I came here when I was 20 years old, enlisted in the 18th United States infantry and was sent to Montana. My company was stationed at Fort Assiniboine. We had numerous skirmishes with the hostile Indians. I was very ambitious to become a commissioned officer and eventually I became sergeant-major of the regiment. Captain Kellogg did everything to help me, as did also Colonel J. J. Coppinger, in command of the regiment.
‘After serving five years I decided not to follow an army career. I went to Chicago and worked in the auditor’s office of the Chicago, Burlington, and Northern railway. I was clerk for Mr. Holcomb, who later came to Portland as vice president of the O. R. & N. My brother, Peter Aune, had a gallery here in Portland so in 1890 I came to Portland and went in business with him. I was one of 15 children. After coming to Portland I married Petra Tonseth. My brother-in-law Thomas Tonseth married Amate Aune, and Cornelius Tonseth, his brother married Aoata Aune. In other words, two of the Aune brothers married two of the Tonseth sisters and two of the Aune sisters married two of the Tonseth brothers. My brother Peter, after his wife died, went back to Norway, so I conducted the gallery for some years. I have had four children, three of whom, Margarethe, Ringar, and Mildred, are now living, and all of whom are in the gallery with me. They love the profession as much as I do.” Lockley, Fred, “Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man” Oregon Journal, 15 March 1930, pg. 4, col. 6-7.
Bibliography
Brown, Robert O., Nineteenth Century Portland, Oregon Photographers: A Collector’s Handbook (author; Portland, 1991) pg. 51 + front cover.
Photographer’s Association of the Pacific Northwest, Programme of Seventh Annual Convention, September 3rd – 6th, 1907, Seattle; n.p. 1907. (unpaginated) “Members Photographic Association of the Pacific Northwest 1907…Aune, J. S. C.—Portland, Ore…”