Galen Biery
Galen Biery was born in Bellingham, Washington on December 23, 1910 to Harriet and Theophilius Osselus Biery. Galen's father had come west in 1889, married a school teacher from Anacortes and became foreman of the box factory at Pacific American Fisheries (P.A.F.). The P.A.F. would be a pivotal influence throughout Biery's life.
Biery attended Lowell and Larrabee schools, and graduated from Fairhaven High School in 1930. At a young age, he exhibited a talent for solving mechanical problems. He built a telescope with fellow student David Morse. Biery also learned how to transfer photographs to glass slides, a skill that led to the Magic Lantern programs for which he became well-known. In the 1920s, Biery's father gave him a broken Motiograph projector, which Biery fixed up. He soon became a popular attraction at community gatherings with his hand-cranked projector.
After graduation, Biery began full-time work in P.A.F.'s box factory. At P.A.F. he became acquainted with Beverly B. Dobbs, a former Whatcom County photographer. Dobbs had become famous for his Top of the World in Motion movies of the Alaska gold rush. Biery assisted Dobbs as he photographed fish processing operations at P.A.F. canneries. Biery helped edit the film in Dobb's Seattle studio and lived a year in Seattle as Dobbs' intern, learning photographic techniques. He received a dollar a day plus room and board.
Returning to Bellingham, Biery set up a newsreel laboratory in 1932. While his footage of Nooksack River flooding made Universal Newsreel, the business did not make it through the Depression. In 1935 Biery patented a post card printing machine. Only one was sold, but it was the first of several patents for a man who liked to tinker and enjoyed engineering challenges.
Galen married Dorothy Wilson in 1937. They would have four children: Galen, Jr., Ed, Patricia, and Joan. By 1940 Biery was a mechanic at P.A.F. in Fairhaven, spending summers at the company's Alaska canneries. He became a member of P.A.F.'s research department, improving on salmon skinning and boning equipment and helping to develop salmon leather. Biery patented a machine to remove the scales from fish skin. His mechanical and engineering expertise advanced Galen to foreman of P.A.F.'s cannery in Petersburg, Alaska.
Mechanic, Inventor, Photographer and... Collector of History
Biery left the company to work for St. Joseph's Hospital in Bellingham, and then as a government fish inspector. He finished his career with P.A.F. and Bellingham Cold Storage, retiring in 1976.
A self-taught historian, Galen's interest in the past started as a youngster, talking to 'old timers' about the way things were. Eventually he started collecting photographs and taping interviews. He gave his first Magic Lantern show for the Fairhaven Lions Club in 1958, using a vintage projector and glass slides he prepared himself. Previous to the first public showing Biery presented a private viewing to Roland Gamwell, a prominent Bellingham businessman since 1890. Gamwell said it was the best show he had ever seen and added his own photos to Biery's growing collection.
Biery converted his basement into a photographic work area, and he made thousands of 4x5 inch copy negatives of deteriorating historic photographs. His enthusiastic and active collecting from the 1940s through the 1990s saved thousands of historic images and brought them together into a single collection. Galen did presentations with local personalities Andy Loft, John Munroe, Dick Kink and Rosamonde Van Miert. His programs were broadcast on KVOS television, and he wrote a weekly history column in the Bellingham Herald. Biery co-authored three books with Dorothy Koert: A History of Whatcom County Theater (1979), Looking Back (1980), and Looking Back, Vol. 2 (1982). He collaborated with Rosamonde Van Miert on the publication of The Great Pacific American Fisheries, 1899 - 1965: Recollections of Galen Biery (1994).
Over the years Galen received many awards, including designation as a "Living Treasure of Whatcom County" by the Bellingham Arts Commission. His other honors were being named Whatcom County Council on Aging's "Senior Citizen of the Year", Bellingham Propeller Club's "Master Mariner" and Bellingham Herald's "Someone Special". He was given further recognition by the Bellingham Education Association, PTA, and Bellingham Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
In 1991, Biery donated the only known complete copy of the 1916 silent movie, Gretchen the Greenhorn, to the Hollywood Studio Museum. The film, starring Dorothy Gish, was fully restored and shown at a UCLA Film Festival in 1993.
Galen Biery passed away in Bellingham on September 26, 1994. His family donated his copy negatives to the Whatcom Museum. The Biery Collection consists of more than 35,000 images, including original vintage prints and negatives, as well as thousands of 4x5 copy negatives that Biery made in his basement darkroom.
