THE COBB's STUDIO Photographers
About Eddie Ross Cobb
Eddie’s story is a compelling saga of her passion for photography that sustained her life through two deaths (her husbands and youngest daughter) and a successful photography business called “Cobb's Studio” for 40 years in New Mexico. She was the longest active photographer in the Territory and State of New Mexico from 1890 – 1940.
As the daughter of a famous national politician, Edmund G Ross, the Senator from Kansas featured in John Kennedy’s Profile and Courage book, she inherited her father’s persistence pioneering spirit. Eddie’s family moved to New Mexico and her father became New Mexico’s Territorial Governor of New Mexico in 1898,
About Will Cobb
After Eddie married a photographer, William Cobb from New York, the Cobb family played an important role in promoting commercial photography in Albuquerque for 30 years through the Cobb's Studio. In 1909, Will Cobb died and Eddie continued to successfully run the studio until 1945 as well as raise four children.
About Daphne Cobb
The Cobb's studio, after Will's death, was now under the sole direction of Eddie Ross with occasional help from three of her four children.
Her Youngest daughter, Daphne, a yet unknown photographer, Daphne Cobb, stepped into the path of courage and creativity by photographing the Indians of the Pueblos of New Mexico, but her illness shortened her life? There are 100 negatives and 40 prints in the Cobb Studio collection that have never been published or viewed by the world taken by Daphne Cobb.
Both women were faced with struggles of life and death. Besides courage, creativity was the glue that kept them on the path when circumstances seemed impossible. But then what is creativity?
About Edmund G Ross
" Thanks to John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, most twenty-first-century Americans who remember Edmund G. Ross (1826-1907) know only that he cast an important vote as a U.S. senator from Kansas that prevented the conviction of President Andrew Johnson of high crimes and misdemeanors, allowing Johnson to stay in office. But Ross also served as a significant abolitionist, journalist, Union officer, and, eventually, territorial governor of New Mexico, where he proved instrumental in the fight for statehood, the improvement of educational standards, and the settlement of land-grant issues.This first full-scale biography of Ross reveals his influential role in the history of the United States and offers a portrait of a resolute individual who often paid a price for his integrity."
More about Edmund G Ross
From : The Edmund G. Ross collection was donated to the Kansas State Historical Society in 1944 by Mrs. Lillian Ross Leis. There are no restrictions on use of the collection.
"During the Civil War Ross served in Company E of the 11th Kansas Cavalry. In 1866 he was appointed by the governor to fill the unexpired United States Senate term of James Lane, who had committed suicide. Ross served in the Senate until 1871. He is best remembered as the man who cast the deciding vote against the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. Reviled by Republicans and Kansas citizens for this vote, Ross became disillusioned with Republican policies, and left the party in 1872. From 1871 to 1882 he pursued his newspaper interests in Kansas.
A sojourn to New Mexico in 1882 revitalized Ross’s health, convincing him to move to the territory permanently. In 1885 he was appointed territorial governor. He served in this position for four years. In 1889 Ross passed the New Mexico bar and spent the remainder of his life practicing law and writing. Years after the Johnson impeachment trial people began to change their minds about the significance of Ross’s actions, and tributes to his courage in the face of intense political pressure were offered. General Hugh Cameron of Lawrence visited Ross in New Mexico carrying testimonials of good will from Kansas citizens in 1907 - the cane in photo. Ross died May 9, 1907."