George Beard

George Beard (December 21, 1854 – October 3, 1944) was an English-born photographer and artist in Utah. After emigrating from England, Beard spent the majority of his life running the Cooperative Mercantile in the town of Coalville in Summit County, Utah. He also served as a leader in politics and in his church community for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is most well known for his art and photography skills, with his focus being in nature photography and watercolor painting. Many of his glass plate negative photos were donated to Brigham Young University (BYU) soon after his death. His work has been a part of two exhibits at BYU and the Springville Museum of Art in 1975 and 2017, respectively.

Early life George Beard was born December 21, 1854, in Cheshire, England. Some confusion exists surrounding his exact birth year as a family bible entry states that he was born in 1855, but his birth certificate states he was born in 1854. He was the youngest of 9 children born to Thomas Beard and Ellen Elizabeth Platt Clark. The family lived in extreme poverty and George's father was a blue collar laborer in their village. Before Beard's birth, his father, mother, and oldest brother found the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were baptized. Their children born from that point on, including Beard, were baptized as well. The family decided to immigrate to the American West alongside many other LDS Europeans, and George embarked from Liverpool on June 20, 1868, for New York City with his mother and two of his sisters Mary Ann and Elizabeth.

Two weeks from the end of this journey, Beard's mother took a fall aboard the ship and sustained fatal injuries. She was buried at sea, and the Beard siblings continued their journey alone.

Professional career and community involvement

Professional and civic careers Beard was involved both professionally and personally in the Coalville community. He ran the Coalville Cooperative Mercantile Institution for 73 years, all the way until his death. During his time in the legislature, he was on and eventually became the chairman of the committee that created the Utah State Seal. Beard also served as a choir and musical director for the Coalville Opera House.

Religious involvement Beard's religion continued to be a pillar in his life into his adulthood. He served as a bishop for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and raised his children as members of the church. While traveling to Utah in 1868, Beard and his siblings made a stop at Niagara Falls, which was incredibly influential later on in his artwork. Thomas Moran also served as an influence for Beard's developing style. Ehren Clark, writing at 15 Bytes, described his paintings, along with his photographs, as having "that spirit of divinity of the unforeseeable in nature". Beard used a Tele-Photo Cycle-Poco camera that he named "Alice" to take pictures. The primary goal of his photographs was to serve as inspiration for his paintings. Beard named Mount Lovenia, a peak that sits in the Uinta Mountains, after his wife, Lovenia. Lake George Beard in Duchesne County is named after him. Following his death, glass plate negatives of his photographs were donated to the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University to be displayed. By using scans of these negatives as well as donations, BYU was able to curate an exhibit of 32 photographs and a few paintings to honor Beard in 1975. From March to June 2017, Beard's great-great nephew Norm Thurston commissioned an exhibit curated by Herman du Toit at the Springville Art Museum. It showed 32 prints created from scans of the glass plate negatives housed at BYU and some of his landscape paintings.