The David LeFavour glass negatives collection documents a variety of activities, individuals, groups, and buildings in Ann Arbor and Bay City. As a member of the class of 1895, a year which was, coincidently, the first year of formal recognition for a Department of Engineering at the University of Michigan, LeFavour participated in an annual event for engineering students. A summer camp was set up outside the University to conduct field projects. The camp was periodically relocated and in 1895 a change was made from a grove on the outskirts of Leland, Michigan, at an outlet of Carp Lake (now Lake Leelanau), to a point further up the lake near the Fountain Point Hotel.
The scenes of the camp and the engineers depict several projects undertaken by the group, their campsite and equipment, and members of the entourage, including Professor Joseph B. Davis (Geodesy and Surveying) who was in charge of the operation. LeFavour also captured his peers at play, as a print of a baseball game at nearby Sutton's Bay reveals.
As a student, David LeFavour was also a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity. He photographed his fraternity house, his room, an unidentified ceremony, and several group portraits of his fraternal brothers and their dates.
Although there is no indication of any personal participation by LeFavour in university athletics, he did photograph members of the university track team and local football games. Other negatives and prints detail several university buildings and more "artistic" views of the Huron River and local Ann Arbor streets.
Those negatives and prints focusing on Bay City, Michigan, provide an insight into another facet of LeFavour's life and interests. Several exterior views are present, which detail the various Shearer homes in the city as well as those of other prominent residents. Interior views of the James Shearer home (where David grew up), reflect the style of life and living conditions of a prosperous Michigan family at the turn of the century.
Many Bay City buildings, including schools, hospitals, and government structures are identified. As was done in Ann Arbor, LeFavour also photographed street views and individuals. Two favorite subjects for LeFavour were children and women. He frequently photographed young relatives and used his photographic skills to show his sister Helen in particular. Often the young lady (or ladies) were posed with bicycles.
The LeFavour negatives were randomly described and dated. Available information has been provided when possible, however. All negatives were produced between 1894 and 1895, but no dates have been attempted for undated negatives or prints. The print collection is numbered so that one can refer back to the appropriate glass negative. There are over 155 glass negatives and a corresponding number of prints.
David LeFavour was born on September 7, 1873, in Bay City, Michigan, and died at the age of thirty-seven, on August 10, 1910. He was the son of Edward and Martha Walker Hutchinson LeFavour. Edward LeFavour died on March 27, 1874, of a ruptured appendix, and David LeFavour and his younger sister Helen were orphaned when their mother died on September 29, 1878, while visiting in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Margaret Hutchinson Shearer, sister of David's mother and wife of James Shearer of Bay City, brought David and Helen LeFavour into her family. James Shearer served as regent of the University of Michigan from 1880 to 1888. He had built several family business interests: saw mills, banking, architecture, and real estate, into Shearer and Sons (later Shearer Brothers) of Bay City, Michigan. Shearer's activity in church and civic affairs combined with his construction efforts in and around Shearer Block on Center Street to make the family a leading force in local development.
In 1895 David LeFavour graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. degree in civil engineering. Some six years later he married Helen MacLaren Kline on December 5, 1901. They lived in Detroit, Michigan for a time, and had twin sons, David E. and William B., who were born on October 4, 1902.
David LeFavour's professional career is not well-documented, although according to The Technic, a publication of the University of Michigan Engineering Society, LeFavour was employed by the Detroit and Mackinaw Railway as a draughtsman (1896-1898) and by the Bay City Round Hoop Company (1898-?) as treasurer. Family sources also indicate that LeFavour invested in a vacuum cleaning company at one time.
Health problems plagued David LeFavour for some time, and he and his family often summered in Wallacebourg, Ontario, Canada. It was here that LeFavour suffered a fatal attack and died of what was later diagnosed as a ruptured appendix, similar to his father's illness.
LeFavour's interest and love of photography never went beyond that of an amateur, and can likely be traced to his academic work as an engineer, in which photography was used for surveying purposes. The actual surveying photographs and scenes of an engineering camp are further evidence of this possibility.
