Grace Dickinson follows in her family’s footsteps near Sleeping Bear Dunes

By Sandra Serra Bradshaw

Sun contributor

Dickinson Gallery of Empire, a working studio/gallery, is, simply put, magnificent. The gallery is owned by Grace Dickinson Johnson, who has taken over the helm from her father. Once you step inside, the very essence of Sleeping Bear Country jumps right out at you. Scores of breathtaking photographs are displayed there, proof of Fred and Grace’s years of photographic excellence capturing Leelanau’s beauty for all who venture inside. Dickinson Gallery is situated in a lovely wooded glen right across the road from her great-grandparents’ home.

Her great-grandparents, Joseph Thomas and Elizabeth Bray, established a long line of local family history to follow. “He moved to the Chicago area from England, arriving sometime in the late 1800s,” explained Grace. “They came to the Leelanau Peninsula in 1912. They built a cottage on the south shore of Little Glen Lake in 1914 and it is still there today. My grandparents, William and Ruth Bray Dickinson, built a cottage next door in 1923. That home still stands today as well.”

Her grandparents named the cottage “Polruan” as a tribute to her great-grandparents’ birth-place in the small coastal village of Polruan in Cornwall, southwestern England. “My great grandfather sailed to America in the late 1800s. He got immediate employment following the Chicago fire as a carpenter.” Grace has the original sign Polruan that hung at her grandparents’ cottage. Today, that same sign hangs on her gallery/living room wall, paying its lineage a tribute to long ago.

Onward with family tracings: William and Ruth Bray Dickinson had two sons, their firstborn was Frederick W, next was Robert James. “My dad lived in Hinsdale, Illinois. In 1938, my father started taking photographs of the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Glen Lake, and the surrounding area,” said Grace. In 1942, her father met Julia Terry when she worked at the Leelanau Enterprise. “They fell in love and were married the same year. My mother grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and she summered in a beautiful log home in East Leland. It was built in 1936 by Joe Gersh of Maple City. He built many fine log homes in the area,” she added.

In 1943, Frederick and Julia purchased the Leelanau Enterprise. “My dad was the publisher and my mother was the editor,” said Grace. Back then the day-to-day necessities of getting the county paper published was managed in a small building above Fishtown. It was at the same spot where Two Fish Gallery is located today. There Frederick would be busy at his work, shooting countless photographs of Fishtown. Its fish shanties and their accompanying drying nets on the wharf, and the alluring fishing tugs made a most charming – the same as today – setting where Fred produced a cherished collection of his early photos.

“The Leelanau Enterprise business was moved to Glen Lake in 1946 and set up in what my parents named the Studio Press building next to their home. When they sold the paper in 1948, the building became the Studio Art Galleries where he sold his photographs,” she said. The Dickinson family purchased 40 acres across the road from the two cottages in 1938. “My dad built a lovely home of his own design, with fourteen-foot ceilings of cedar wood, Douglas fir floors, and a field stone fireplace,” she continued. “And, of course, he made a dark room in the basement, which was like a haven for him,” Grace remarked.

Frederick photographed and made a historical photo collection of the Sleeping Bear Dune rides. “He photographed the first two fleets of the dune rides, that in 1938 and the second fleet in 1950. The love he deeply felt for this pristine land transcended into lovely landscape pictures that are sought after and collected today,” said Grace. In 1943 Fred drew two large maps – artistic renditions – with pen and ink, one of Leelanau County and the other of the Glen Lake area, both of which are still available today in the gallery. In 1950, Frederick established a postcard business that included the Sleeping Bear Dunes and Leland’s Fishtown. He continued to operate his gallery throughout the 1950s, selling prints of outstanding European artists of medieval and modern times, as well as his photographs, maps and postcards.

At a very early age, Grace began accompanying her father in his photographic journeys over the dunes. She followed in her father’s footsteps, quite literally, sometimes photographing the same scenes. “My love of art began with living close to nature at Glen Lake. He also taught me lessons in the darkroom, the ultimate being how to print and hand color his black and white photographs.” Fred and Grace shared the same eye for composition and the love for the beauty of the Leelanau Peninsula.

“Times were different prior [to] the establishing of the National Lakeshore,” Grace reminisced. “The peace and quiet allowed for communing with the natural environment – the quiet of the woods, exploring the Sleeping Bear Dunes with fewer people there, and swimming in the warm waters of Little Glen Lake and North Lake Leelanau where my mother’s family had a log home by the shore.”

Grace first learned water color and perspective drawing in fourth grade, even then knowing art was in her blood. “When I was 12, I took water color painting with a fine artist, Frank Dillon of Glen Lake, and I studied art with Paul Welch while attending Northern Michigan University. Later, a favorite job of mine was at Billings Hospital at the University of Chicago where I worked as a medical illustrator. It was a rewarding experience working with doctors in research for their publications and presentations,” she said.

Grace continues her father’s photographic work today, adding new landscape scenes to the collection. “While framing a scene through my camera lens, it is instinct,” she explained. “I know whether the composition will work or not.” She operates the gallery in the same building as her father did on the south side of Little Glen Lake. “Like an artist showing love of nature with painting on a canvas, expression for my love of nature is with my camera. I compose a scene through the view finder just as my father did with his own camera,”

Gracie went to the Bahamas first as a young woman. “The Bahamas are a real Gift of Color,” she emphatically stated. “The islands are in a shallow sea of limestone and coral with white sand bars, transparent waters of jade and ultramarine and every shade in between,” she said. “Limestone cays of subtropical vegetation are fringed with coral reefs and sandy shoals. The sea is so transparent, the sun weaves the waters into strands of emerald to many shades of blue.”

“My first encounter with the Bahamas was as a stewardess aboard the 151-foot schooner, Polynesia, which sailed out of Miami Beach. That was with the notorious Windjammer Barefoot Vacations sailing the islands,” she said. “Following, I took a job in Nassau at a photo studio as a photo colorist. The day I arrived, “Thunderball,” starring Sean Connery, was being filmed! I was at the Junkanoo parade during the ‘Street scene filming.’ This exciting part of Thunderball can be seen on YouTube: ‘Thunderball Street Scene.’ This parade at that time illustrates true Bahamian culture with its Goombay music and dancing. I feel it is interesting that Sean Connery chose to take up residence in New Providence, Nassau Bahamas during the 1950s and where he lived out his life.”

Many more trips to the Bahamas followed with opportunities for more exciting camera work. “I sailed the Bahamas in a 39-foot Irwin, Saga, with a hospital pharmacist, who captained the boat. He donated medical supplies to clinics on various islands. When I was sailing on the Saga, we left Key Largo when the winds were favorable for crossing the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas,” said Grace. “The captain went below to catch up on some needed sleep. I sailed the Saga across the Gulf Stream all the way to Bimini. He gave me instructions, and came up a couple of times to check on the sails, then returned below,” said Grace. “The waves were manageable, however sometimes rose up to 5-6 feet. When I saw the low-lying island of Bimini, he took over and set anchor by the island. It was a thrilling sail. It must be in my DNA,” she joked, “as many of my ancestors were mariners from Cornwall.”

“A camping trip to Montana resulted in not returning to Michigan but taking a job at a camp on a distant section of a large ranch as a cook, and even making cowboy coffee,” she said with a laugh. “The cowboy camp closed when the snow came. So, I became employed with the Great Falls school system as an artist for elementary school teachers; I provided teaching aids for their students. After meeting a rancher in the area, I got married and became a ranch wife. Montana was real Montana at that time,” she stressed. “In 1968, there was only a population of 600,000 for the entire state.”

Grace returned to Leelanau in the late 1980s, and, using her skills as a mapmaker, she worked at the Leelanau County Planning Department. Grace began taking photos of the Leelanau area and opened her own studio, out of which she sold both hers and her father’s photos and maps. In the mid-1990s she revived the 1930s art of photographic hand-coloring, laboriously hand-tinting her father’s black and white photos of earlier years, photos which evoke the shadows and starkness of some of the “photos of Diane Arbus, but as applied to nature, not people,” Grace stated simply. In the medium of hand-coloring Grace discovered a way to keep her father’s legacy alive and express her own love of Leelanau. “My love of the natural world, its ever-changing weather with its seasons is what I grew up with. It becomes who you are and how you react to the outdoors and its beauty.”

“Gracie is a local treasure, an amazing woman and a fantastic photographer,” said Dr. Richard Worthington. He and his wife own a summer cottage on Big Glen Lake. “She is the daughter of a local legend, Frederick Dickinson, who was a pioneer photographer of the Glen Lake area. My grandparents bought several of his photographs long before I was born. We have become good friends over the last couple of years and are amazed at her accomplishments and adventuring life!”

“The gallery is now in my home,” said Grace. “I welcome visitors any time and am open from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day. I have notebooks of photos of my father’s work available for people to look through and order any size, canvas prints and loose prints. The dune car photos are very popular. Much interest is shown in the history of this area. Many friendships have been made at the gallery with fine people who are interested in my dad’s photographic work and the history of the area. My father’s photographs are beautifully displayed and for sale at the Arbor Gallery in Glen Arbor as well.”