E. G. Barnhill specialized in publishing tropical, Florida post cards, greeting cards and pictorial photography of Florida from 1914 - 1932. The printing of his early cards was done in Germany. He published, photographed, and hand colored his cards himself. Most of his cards were printed by the Albertype Company of New York.

Barnhill was always interested in American Indian culture. He met Edward S. Curtis when he was still in his late teens. While working with Curtis, he learned the "goldtoning" photo process using uranium dyes. He experimented with this process from 1914 until the mid 1920s. During WWII he established an Indian Trading Post at the Wisconsin Dells, which he operated summers until 1959. A few years later he opened the Indian Springs Museum in Palm Bay, Florida.

The following information was graciously provided to me by E. G. Barnhill's grandson, Clayton M. Barnhill:

Esmond Gerrard Barnhill was the son of Luther Hulen Barnhill and Estella Helen "Stella" (Gilreath) Barnhill. He was born in Andrews, North Carolina, on the 4th of March 1894. While still a young lad and after the death of his mother he was sent by his father to an Episcopal School located near Millbrook, New York, where his uncle, Rev. George Valerie Gilreath was an instructor. He married Helen Clayton, the daughter of Benjamin Kelly Clayton and Linda (Gravatt) Clayton, on the 23rd of March 1916 in Clarksburg, New Jersey. Helen was born in Clarksburg, New Jersey, on the 29th of December 1895.

In his early adulthood, E G Barnhill traveled a good bit in search of employment. He had acquired skills of the photographic trade from his father and was an apprentice to a prominent photographer in Palm Beach, Florida, in his early years. He quickly became a celebrated photographer, and at the age of nineteen established his own business in St. Petersburg, Florida, which he operated for many years.

He was the first to photograph the famous Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida, with its image reflected in the pool at the entrance (picture left). When he first photographed the tower it had just been completed, the construction scaffolding still in place on one side of the tower. He etched the scaffolding out on the negative and replaced it with clouds. He later went to Germany where he had the lithograph made of the print and sold thousands of the reproductions which had been tinted to enhance the picture.

E G Barnhill became quite an authority on early American Indians and operated several museums featuring Indian artifacts. He had been digging in Indian Mounds since his boyhood in North Carolina, and had been an Indian trader and curio shop owner in Estes Park Co, Boothbay Harbor in Florida, and Wisconsin Dells in Wisconsin.

While he was a pictorial photographer in Daytona Beach, Florida, he joined two adventurers on a Carribean treasure hunt. Though they never made the big strike, they did make several small ones, the first in Santa Domingo. At Porto Bello, Panama, in the ruins of an old church they raked dozens of pieces of eight out of the ashes of their camp fire, the coins being not more than a fraction of an inch below the dirt floor.

He opened his first trading post on the Dania Canal in Dania, Florida, when he arrived on the East Coast of Florida from St. Petersburg. In 1953 he opened his museum called "Ancient America" on US Highway 1 north of Boca Raton. The museum was on twenty five acres that contained an ancient Indian Mound, which he had opened under the supervision of a professional archaeologist, uncovering 72 Indian burials. However, many of the items in the museum were things he had been collecting for many years prior. The museum was closed a few years later and the property sold because he stated in a news release that, "all these tourists are interested in are dog tracks and night clubs." Some years later he opened another museum further north on US Highway 1 near Palm Bay, Florida, which he called "Indian Springs Museum". This venture did not prove successful so he closed the museum and relocated to a spot six miles west of Kissimmee, Florida, on the road leading to Disney World. This was his last museum, at the age of 88, a number of years after his wife, Helen, had died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on the 12th of November 1967. E G Barnhill passed away in 1987 at the age of ninety-three.

Esmond G. Barnhill and Helen (Clayton) Barnhill had the following children: Esmond Clayton, John Kenneth "Jack", William Burrough "Bill", and Betty Ann Graham. They are all still living. I, Clayton M. Barnhill, am the middle son of William B. Barnhill.