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The Historical Society of Cecil County |
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Preserving Cecil County's History |
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The Cheeseman Collection |
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Jim Cheeseman, known as the "Cheese", a photojournalist at the Cecil Whig in Elkton, for over twenty years, captured attention-grabbing images for the newspaper and thoroughly documented daily activities in Cecil by shooting photographs of political and social events, crime-scenes, accidents, and disasters, as well as the changes that occurred across our landscape. Cheeseman's assignments captured it all, the day President John F. Kennedy opened I-95, the week Hurricane Agnes devastated Port Deposit, and the many floods, blizzards, and storms that brought havoc to the top of the Chesapeake. He was there too when the county celebrated its holidays and he covered everyday happenings as well.
Jim began his career working for a commercial studio in Philadelphia the Photo Boys Studio back in 1936. Later, after enlisting in the army and serving his country during World War II, he resumed his career working for the Los Angeles Examiner and the International News before returning to New Jersey where he worked for the Newark Star Ledger. On assignment for a European news service in 1963, Jim arrived in Elkton to cover the crash of the Pan Am Airliner. From that time, until he retired in 1983, he photographed Cecil's people, places, and things, creating a body of work that spanned parts of three decades as brought new events into focus for readers.
This important collection provides researchers with a strong, comprehensive resource for studying what happened in Cecil County between 1962 and 1983. If you need to see how Main Street in a particular town appeared in the 1960s, if you are looking for photos of a disaster, or how the county fair or your local club has changed over the decades, check out the Cheeesman collection. It is estimated that this collection contains over 20,000 images. Cheeseman was the supervising photographer at the Whig during this time, and his collection also contains works by other photographs.
Click here for a sample of some of his work
A slide show of some of Jim Cheeseman’s work
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Jim at his retirement party in 1983. Pictured with Jim are his editor, Don Herring, his wife Doris, (Jim) and Lt Wayne Saunders of the Maryland State Police |
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Jim is on the job at the Cecil County Fair in 1979 |