The Colonel Riley McGarraugh Photographic Collection is a magnificent collection of nearly 29,000 photographic negatives taken by McGarraugh Studios in Lewes from the mid-1950s up until the time of Colonel McGarruagh's death in 1974. The collection is comprised not only of contemporary images of Lewes, but reproductions of prints of Lewes from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that may exist nowhere else. The images were donated by Colonel McGarraugh's daughter, Marna Cupp, shortly after her father's death in 1974.

Colonel McGarraugh moved with his family to Lewes to assume the duties of Commanding Officer at Fort Miles in the early 1950s and set up his Gills Neck Road studio that was soon to become his primary devotion. McGarruagh was a contract photographer and documented the construction of the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, life at Fort Miles, fires, accidents, homecomings, sporting events, scouting activities, and the development of Cape Henlopen State Park are among a lengthy list of subjects and resources. In addition, McGarraugh took portrait and wedding photography.

This image from the collection depicts Richard Nixon, his wife Patricia and their two children, Patricia and Julie, along with an unidentified man on the beach near Rehoboth. McGarraugh was often summoned to such scenes and in turn left a rich legacy of life in Lewes and Sussex County in the middle of the twentieth century.

For more information about the collection, please contact the Society at research@historiclewes.org.

Past Collection Highlights