Looking Back’s theme for 2025 features Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. Although photographer Joseph Buchtel is better known as a Portland, Oregon photographer, he had ties in Thurston County, partnering for a time with Olympia photographer Alonzo Bixby Woodard. He made several portraits of Olympia citizens, including this 1870s photograph of Lurana Ware Percival, wife of merchant “Captain” Samuel Wing Percival. Photograph selected and captioned by Deborah Ross on behalf of the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum, https://olympiahistory.org.
Joseph Buchtel portrait, 1870s, courtesy of State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society