The National Bell Festival is pleased to announce the accession of an original 1922 press photo to our archives. As we work to chronicle, record, and report on our nation’s campanological heritage, the historical photograph will add to our growing body of research materials.
The photograph was captured Sept. 12, 1922, by Harris & Ewing Inc., a photographic studio in Washington, D.C., led by George W. Harris and Martha Ewing. The image depicts James A. Watts sitting on a windowsill, leaning out to ring a bell by grasping a rope. For 12 years, Mr. Watts held the post of official bell ringer at the Propagating Gardens in Washington, D.C., which supplied the White House and executive complex with fresh flowers and plants for displays and gardens.
Image: Historical photograph dated Sept. 12, 1922, of James A. Watts ringing a bell at the administration building of the Propagating Gardens in Washington, D.C.
The Propagating Gardens were moved in 1902 as part of Theodore Roosevelt’s grand renovation plan, which saw the demolition of the White House greenhouses and conservatory to make way for the new Temporary Executive Office Building (now the West Wing). The bell depicted in the photograph moved with the gardens to a new location west of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and near the Washington Monument.
The bell was mounted against the gardens’ administration building at the corner of 15th St. and Park Drive Way (now Independence Ave. SW) and rung four times daily to announce the beginning and ending of work: starting the day at 7:30am, breaking for lunch at noon and resuming work at 12:30pm, and finally calling it quits at 4:00pm.
The back of the photograph is stamped by the reference department of the Newspaper Enterprise Association with an archival date of Sept. 22, 1922, and includes this description of the obverse:
BELL CALLS PRESIDENT’S GARDENERS TO WORK
In the heart of Washington hangs this old-fashioned bell, not unlike the one that used to hang from the “little red school house”. It is located in the “Propagating Gardens” where all the flowers and plants for the White House and White House gardens are grown. The men employed there are known as the President’s own gardeners. The bell, which hangs from the administration building is rung at 7:30 a.m., 12m., 12:30 p.m., and 4 p.m. by James A. Watts, who has held the post of official bell ringer for twelve years. The bell originally hung in the State, War and Navy Building.
One might wonder: Where is the bell now? The National Bell Festival is on the case to find out!
Cover image: Reverse of the 1922 press photo archived by the Newspaper Enterprise Association, now in the collection of the National Bell Festival.
