112 Main Street North
Stillwater, MN, USA

112 Main Street North, Stillwater, MN, USA

Born in 1878, John Runk started a photography business in 1899, but he had been taking pictures for some years before that. His career as a photographer spanned more than sixty years. Runk had many studio spaces in Stillwater through his career. He occupied the space seen here from 1912 to 1919.

John Runk is one of the most well known photographers to have worked in Minnesota. The reason for Runk’s importance stems as much from photographs taken by others as from his own photographic work. Aside from running his own photography business, Runk devoted a great deal of his time locating, preserving and copying historical photos.

John Runk began donating his photograph collections to the Stillwater Library in late 1930s. By the end of his career, Runk donated thousands of photographs (including photographs and motion pictures he took) to the Stillwater Library, the Washington County Historical Society, and the Minnesota Historical Society.

photographs by John Runk from the MNHS Photo and Art Database