The Story

In May 1924, brothers Floyd and Harry Reed established a photography studio at 319 Vine Street in downtown Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

The commercial space the brothers took over had a history of its own. The property is identified in earlier records with Judge Byrd Duncan, and it had previously housed the People's Bakery and Kahn Clothing, both of which were associated with a 1909 building fire. Following reconstruction after that fire, Kahn Clothing occupied the commercial space until the firm closed in 1923. The Alexander Dry Goods Company, operated by J. W. Alexander, then occupied the location for approximately a year before the Reed Brothers opened their studio there in May 1924.

Operating as Reed Bros. Photographers, the brothers provided photographic services during a period when studio portraits, photographic postcards, and images of local buildings and events were important means of documenting and sharing community life. Their known work included a panoramic photograph of the Butler County Courthouse in 1925, as well as photographic activity throughout the surrounding Ozarks.

The studio advertised widely for a small-town firm. The circular stamp used on the backs of its postcards offered “Enlarging, Kodak Finishing, Portraits,” and the advertisement it placed in the 1926 city directory at 319 Vine Street promised “Portraits, Commercial Photos, Circuit Panoramas” and “Genuine Velox Kodak Finishing.” By 1931 the firm was listed in the city directory at the same address under four headings — Photographers, Photo Finishers, Picture Framing, and Kodaks.

Just three years after the studio opened, the tornado of May 9, 1927 destroyed much of downtown Poplar Bluff. Photographs associated with the Reed Brothers help preserve the appearance of the city following the disaster.

One surviving real photographic postcard, cataloged by Historic Poplar Bluff as HPB-PHOTO-003, depicts the tornado’s aftermath along Broadway Street (Fourth Street), looking south toward Poplar Street, with the Fraternal Building visible on the right. The reverse bears the circular Reed Bros. stamp. Although the stamp establishes an association with the studio, it does not conclusively identify the individual photographer who made the exposure.

The Reed Brothers photography studio represents an important part of Poplar Bluff’s early twentieth-century commercial and photographic history. Through their work, the brothers contributed to the visual documentation of the city and the surrounding region, including images associated with the 1927 tornado that remain valuable to local historical research today.

The building at 319 Vine Street no longer stands — nothing occupies the former studio site today. Historic Poplar Bluff’s research into the studio’s later history, its surviving images, and the people behind the camera, is ongoing.