Samuel Sergeant Newbury

Samuel Sergeant Newbury was the fourth and last child of his parents. He was born October 28, 1879, Detroit, MI, and died December 17, 1956, Denver, CO.

Sergeant spent most of his life in and near Denver, CO, where he married Helen Booth, born 1889, with whom he raised an adopted daughter, Nancy, born February 16, 1921. She married William Pierce Hincks, and had two daughters, Katharine Newbury, born 1946, Berkeley, CA, and one whose middle name is Winslow, born 1947, and two sons, John Thurston, born 1943, Berkeley, CA, and Duncan Pierce, born 1953.

Samuel Sergeant Newbury had a career as a professional photographer.

Several of his photos can be found online in the collection of the Denver Public Library. One such image is a detail of cornice decoration, house in Black Hawk, Colorado, [cat. no. X-2137]. This depicts an example of architectural woodwork on a “Carpenter Gothic” house in Blackhawk, Colorado. This "gingerbread" style includes flowers and leaves lining the porch frieze and the roof line under the chimney, and an ornate bracket at the support post.

Other photos in the DPL collection are Central City people by Newbury, 1937 [X-2986], Tin Type Tent, Opera House Festival, 1932 [X-2527]. These and more than fifty others can be seen online at photoswest.org.

One of the photos he published as postcards was the "Face on the Barroom Floor," a portrait painted under mysterious circumstances in Central City’s Teller House.

Samuel and his wife Helen were also involved in the preservation of Central City, a mining town near Denver that had been very important in the 19th century.

Samuel professionally photographed art in the collection of the Denver Art Museum. He and his wife also operated a shop in Denver called Trade Winds. It sold fine antiques.

Michael Delahunt remembers his great-uncle Samuel Sergeant Newbury visiting Michael's family in Milwaukee when he was a child. Sergeant wore a three-piece white suit, and had a knack for entertaining children by transforming his white handkerchief into a rabbit, which he could then move as a hand-puppet.