Dobbs, B. B. (Beverly Bennett)

B. B. Dobbs (1868-1937) was active as a photographer and also was a pioneer in the emerging motion picture business in both Alaska and Washington State during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; he is believed to be one of the first individuals to have used motion picture film north of the Arctic Circle.

Born Beverly Bennett Dobbs near Marshall, Missouri, he first learned photography in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1888, Dobbs moved to Bellingham, Washington, where he would operate a photography studio for twelve years (including a partnership with F.F. Fleming under the name Dobbs & Fleming between 1890-1891). Lured by the gold rush, Dobbs moved to Nome, Alaska in 1900, but ultimately found more success documenting life in Alaska as a photographer and filmmaker. By 1903, he had formed a partnership with A.B. Kinne. The Dobbs & Kinne studio in Nome offered photography services and photo supplies. Dobbs photographed scenes in Nome and the Seward Peninsula and made award-winning portraits of the Inuit people (more commonly referred to at the time as Eskimos). Around 1909, he established the Dobbs Alaska Moving Picture Company, producing Atop of the World in Motion, a collection of travelogues. Just a few years later, Dobbs began to focus exclusively on filmmaking. He sold his photography negatives to the Lomen Brothers (who later issued some of his work under their company name). By 1914, he had set up the Dobbs Totem Film Company in Seattle, Washington. Dobbs is listed as the cinematographer for A Romance of Seattle, a film shot in and around Seattle in 1919. During the 1930s, Dobbs photographed fish processing operations at Pacific American Fisheries (PAF) in the Fairhaven area of Bellingham.

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