History
The Artist and the Businessman
One convenient part of Radford's history is the fact that a lot of it is documented on photographs. Admittedly, this doesn't cover Native American forerunners and some of the early settlements in the area. But the Radford as we know it today started developing in the 1850s - just around the time that photography became usable and more widespread.
Hugh L. Mangum
Looking at these old photographs from the late 19th and early 20th century it is astonishing how much - and in some cases how little - has changed over time. On a closer look, oftentimes there is one of two names scribbled in some corner or printed below: Hugh Mangum or W. W. Darnell. They are Radford's early photographers and their work still dominates how we remember the City today. But just like some of their pictures, their lives have faded away, even though at their times they were some of the most colorful characters in town.
Hugh Leonard Mangum was an artist, a ladies man, a rambler with humor and a good heart. Born June 3, 1877 on Main Street in Durham, NC, he was the oldest child of a talented and creative family.
At the age of 16 Hugh Mangum was already a self-taught photographer. He had also achieved some mastery with oils and water-colors. He was musical, like others in the family, and could play the mandolin, accordion, and piano. He led a rambling life through the cities and countryside of the Southeast, photographing blacks and whites, children at play, workers in the field, and scenes around home by the Eno. He traveled by train on these picture-taking trips, returning often to Durham, perhaps when his money ran out. Along the way he set up many temporary studios, as well as three permanent ones in the Virginia towns of Roanoke, Pulaski, and East Radford.
Mangum had a fascination for the eccentric and bizarre. He took a degree in hypnotism and made a point of following vaudeville troops to photograph their extravagances. Above all, as his camera records, he had an eye for pretty women. Although his nude pictures are gone, hundreds of photographs are left to us displaying handsome women dressed in the lavish costumes of the time. It was therefore probably no coincidence that in 1906 he married Annie Carden, who was said to be the most beautiful girl in East Radford, Virginia.
He took delight in photographing her striking features and beautifully coiffured hair. As a family man he delighted also in photographing his daughter in pinafore and ribbons. When the entire family fell prey to influenza in the epidemic of 1922, he ordered the doctor to administer whiskey, the only remedy available, to his wife and child. He himself refused the remedy on principle. He died of pneumonia on March 12, 1922, at the age of 44. He is buried at Central Cemetery.
His works can still be seen around town: in the lobby of McConnell library (graduation pictures), in the city hall (Radford fairgrounds), and on the Glencoe website and brochure (the little girl is very likely one of his photographs). In his hometown of Durham there is a museum dedicated to him (located at the Eno River Park) and Duke University just recently digitized many of his portraits. Check http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/catalog/hmp/ for more information.
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