STANDIFORD, ETHEL CONWAY

STANDIFORD, ETHEL CONWAY (3 January 1871 - 9 May 1963) won prizes for her photographs of Cleveland's elite of the 1920s and 1930s at the CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART's MAY SHOWS; collections of her work are held by the WESTERN RESERVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY and the CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Born in Jackson County, Indiana, Standiford was educated to teach school but apprenticed to a local photographer instead. She married Frank Standiford in 1891. She opened her own studio in Louisville, KY in 1901. Following her husband's death in 1916, she married Cleveland resident, dentist Harold David Mehling in 1917. The couple separated sometime in the 1930s. Standiford moved the Standiford Photographic Studio to Cleveland in 1919, first located in the GAGE GALLERY OF FINE ARTS, then in the Chilcote building (1925), and finally in the Hickox Bldg. at 1030 EUCLID AVENUE (1930s).

Plagued by debts, Standiford filed bankruptcy and closed the studio in 1936, presenting 500 autographed photographs of prominent Cleveland residents to the Cleveland Public Library. The first woman to be elected president of Cleveland Photographers Assn., Standiford was noted especially for her portraits of men and her innovative methods of photographing children. Standiford died on 9 May 1963, and is buried at Cave Hill Cemetery, in Louisville, with her first husband.