Biography
At the turn of the 20th-century, marine photographer Wilhelm Hester took and sold photographs of ships and sailors at the Tacoma, Seattle, and Port Blakeley waterfronts. The shipment of grain centered in Tacoma and lumber at Puget Sound's sawmills attracted deepwater sailing ships, steamers and coastal vessels.
Hester was born in October, 1872, in central Hamburg. He and his brother Ernst arrived in the United States in 1890. They spent the years 1890-1893 in Montana. In the fall of 1893 they arrived in Seattle. Shortly after their arrival Hester started photographing together with his brother Ernst. He continued until 1898, leaving Seattle then for a year to search Alaska's famed Klondike for gold. At 34, he appears to have given up photography in 1905 or 1906 to pursue real estate speculation. In his retirement he bought and lived atop Seattle's Queen Anne Hill. He died at Seattle's Virginia Mason Hospital on February 25, 1947.
From the guide to the Wilhem Hester Photographs, 1893-1905, (San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (Calif.).)
