ALEXANDRIA — Taking a photograph today is as easy as whipping out your cell phone, but before the turn of the last century, it was a large-format affair involving glass plates.

One local early photographer was N. J. Trenham, who worked in the Alexandria area from 1875 to 1903.

On Thursday, Jan. 11, as part of the Hot Chocolate and History series, two albums featuring Trenham’s work were explored in a presentation at the Discovery Middle School. The series is organized in part by Alexandria Community Education.

Brittany Johnson,

Douglas County Historical Society

‘s executive director, said many of the images Trenham took were used as a way to draw people into the area, either to live or to visit.

The first album comes from 1876, and the second from 1889.

The first album features more documentary-style photographs, with pictures of farms and churches, while the second features some “very intentional tourist advertising” placing Alexandria at the center of the famous Park Region area, Johnson said.

“We’re going to be talking about, this is a green space perfect for picknicking, there are lakes full of fish,” she said.

One description of Alexandria from that time reads, “It is a neat and attractive little city of 2,500 inhabitants. The surrounding country is about one-third timber, one-third prairie and one-third water. These diversified topographical features make it an inviting home for all kinds of game, from the deer which abound in the forests to the inhabitants of the innumerable lakes and streams. This country is a natural home for geese, ducks (and) prairie chickens.”

The sales pitch must have worked, because all of the prairie chickens had been hunted by 1920, Johnson said.

Another photograph showed a train, sending the message that Alexandria is easy to get to, Johnson said.

“It’s easy to get here,” she said. “You don’t have to come on that bumpy stage road anymore. You literally just grab your trunk (and) hop on a train.”

Other photographs showed people engaged in summer pastimes like fishing.

“One of my favorite tourist broadsides of the area describes how women are just as successful at fishing in Douglas County lakes,” Johnson said.

Trenham stayed in Alexandria for almost 30 years, and in that time owned galleries at several different locations, one of which was on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and H Street, or Hawthorne Street.

By 1900, a new era of photography was beginning, with the proliferation of smaller cameras and post cards, and Trenham’s style of photography was largely phased out. He closed his final gallery in 1903.

In 1913, Trenham and his wife moved to Florida, although his sons were involved in local businesses for several more decades, Johnson said. He died in 1924 in Fulford, Fla., about a month shy of his 84th birthday.

The albums he left behind are now part of the collection at the Douglas County Historical Society.

Travis Gulbrandson covers several beats, including Osakis School Board and Osakis City Council, along with the Brandon-Evansville School Board. His focus will also be on crime and court news.