Harry Sterling Hooper bio

After I found Harry Hooper's wonderful 1906 photo, I searched the internet for more information about him. This page describes what I found (detailed supporting notes here).

In 1906 future Red Sox hall-of-famer Harry Hooper (age 18) was a baseball star at St. Mary's, then located in Oakland, but he's Harry Bartholomew Hooper, not Harry Sterling Hooper the photographer. I'm guessing that photographer Harry Hooper later went by "Harry S. Hooper" or "Harry Sterling Hooper" to distinguish himself from the famous ballplayer.

In 1906 dentist Dr. Harry Hooper had an office at Market/6th and lived in Berkeley (he lived in S.F. both earlier and later), but he's not the right Harry Hooper either.

Timeline:

I have found two postcards (here and here) published by Hooper in 1907, both related to the 1907 streetcar strike. Another postcard (here), not published by Hooper, is a short doggerel poem by Hooper.

amazon.com lists Harry as author of The fairest of the fair, unknown binding, 1916, but provides no further information about it. I suspect this is incorrect and should instead refer to 1911 That damn'dest finest fair. The 1916 Leavenworth Times clipping says Harry owns a large ranch near Oroville CA and writes poetry as "a by-product". It describes him as a "Junction City boy" (Kansas), a reference to his past history rather than to his current age (then 40 or 41).

Summary: Harry Sterling Hooper was born in Illinois, grew up in Kansas, came to California as a young man, married and had children, witnessed the 1906 San Francisco earthquake/fire firsthand, dabbled in postcard publishing in S.F. (see here and here), moved back to his parents' farm in Kansas after the earthquake and worked as a dry goods salesman, returned to California and worked as a rancher near Oroville, published some topical poetry (see here), and was issued one patent. He was in the right place at the right time to take one stunning photograph.


Back to Hooper 1906 page