A Visit to the Historic Jeffcoat Photography Studio Museum in Abilene, Kansas (Video)

Abilene’s Free Museum Based Inside a Historic Photo Studio is a Best Kept Secret

The Jeffcoat Photo Studio was established by Paul Jeffcoat in 1921, and the building itself was constructed in 1925 purpose built to be a professional portrait studio with it’s own onsite darkroom. Among the highlights is a photograph of then military officer (and later U.S. President) Dwight D. Eisenhower on the front steps of his Abilene home. That photograph was published in LIFE Magazine and in National Geographic.

Over the decades, the studio served as a family business as more relatives became professional photographers, and eventually the front reception area was converted into a camera store.

Tours of the museum are free. The museum is a labor of love, maintained by descendants of the photographers who want to keep the studio and its memories alive. You’ll see the camera store with a big display of historic cameras, the darkoom left as it would have looked when the Jeffcoats used it for developing film and making prints, and large portrait studio which also holds historic museum displays and vintage prints.