American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Dimock, Julian A. (Julian Anthony), 1873-1945
birth: 1873 August 8
death: 1945 September 22
Julian Anthony Dimock, (born August 8, 1873, Elizabeth, New Jersey - died September 22, 1945, Topsham, Vermont) was a photographer of people and landscapes throughout the United States and Canada known for his portraits of former slaves in South Carolina and the Seminole community in Florida, as well as a rich photographic record of his travels with his father, Anthony Weston Dimock, who published many articles featuring his son’s images. He donated 6,000 negatives from his career to the American Museum of Natural History in 1920 (1).
Julian Anthony Dimock was born into an affluent household to Anthony and Helen Weston Dimock in Elizabeth, New Jersey on August 8, 1873 where he attended the Pingry School. He worked at the New York Stock Exchange until an illness prompted him to leave and accompany his father on outdoor adventures and excursions serving as his photographer. Anthony Dimock published widely on his travels in articles and books which featured Julian’s images. Julian became a professional photographer and shot his subjects using a 6 ½ x 8 ½ Reflex camera and a folding tri-pod view camera for landscapes and portraits with the same lens and plate holder for both. He did his own developing and printing using glass plates and carried this equipment with him photographing the Florida Everglades, Arizona, Canada, New England, South Carolina, and the Lower East Side of Manhattan (1).
In 1910 Julian Dimock and his father joined anthropologist Alanson Skinner from the American Museum of Natural History in the Florida Everglades to visit Seminole Indians. Dimock documented the area and took portraits of the Seminole people they met there. In 1911 Dimock traveled to Vermont to capture on film the process of maple sugaring for an article written by Helen Dodd. He remained in the area and met Annette Follette Chase, whom he married on July 12, 1912 in Oneonta, New York. And for the next few years he continued to travel on several photographic assignments throughout New England and Canada. He published in a variety of magazines including Travel and Country Life. Dimock created a vast collection of portraits of the people he encountered throughout his travels and leaves a record of newly arrived immigrants to Ellis Island, former slaves of South Carolina, men of a logging community in Canada, students of the Alabama Tuskegee Institute, and the Seminole of Florida. He also widely captured nature and animals on film and the landscapes of the regions through which he traveled.
Julian Dimock gave up photography when his father died in 1918 and became a farmer in Vermont. Having been associated with the American Museum of Natural History through his travels with Skinner, Dimock donated his collection of 6000 photographs and glass plate negatives in 1920. He died of a heart attack at age 72, on September 22, 1945 in Topsham, Vermont (2).