Looking Back’s theme for 2025 featured Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. John Vivian Yantis was the son of early settler Benjamin F. Yantis. He operated a photograph studio near the corner of Fourth Avenue and Main Street (Capitol Way) in the mid-1860s, and served in the Territorial Legislature. He is pictured here with his wife Margaret Hume Yantis, in this photograph taken by L. Wilson Clark.
Clark Photo, mid-1800s, Courtesy State Capital Museum Collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1976.41.6
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2025