Oscar Virgil "O.V." Hunt (1881-1962) was one of Birmingham’s most prolific and adventurous twentieth-century commercial photographers. From the late 1910s until his retirement in 1952, he documented daily life in the Magic City. Collected here are several representative photos from his vast body of work.
O.V. Hunt photo of a boy sitting in a Bulldog Mack pedal truck with a cigar in one hand, from 1935.
This photo from the 193os shows the elaborately decorated window of the Clarke & Jones Piano Store in Birmingham, taken by O.V. Hunt.
O.V. Hunt perches atop a derrick over the construction site of the Tutwiler Hotel in this 1913 photo. He often risked life and limb to photograph photos of Birmingham.
O.V. Hunt maintained a studio in Birmingham's Clark Building at 1926 Fourth Avenue North.
Pioneering pilot Edmund Heth and O.V. Hunt, holding his box camera, pose in an early biplane at the Alabama State Fairgrounds in Birmingham.
Early in his career, O.V. Hunt snapped this photo of the Birmingham Fire Department fighting a large fire at the Birmingham Railway, Light and Power Company building on May 8, 1914.
O.V. Hunt made most of his income photographing displays, buildings, and showrooms for Birmingham businesses, like the car dealership shown here. This image shows the deterioration that occurs frequently on antique glass-plate slides, as the emulsion coating peels and flakes off.
Ben Fell's News Stand in downtown Birmingham, photographed by O.V. Hunt in the 1930s.
O.V. Hunt photograph of the Strand Theatre's advertising display for the 1920 silent film Alarm Clock Andy.
O.V. Hunt photograph of an African American shoe shiner and some customers at Tom's Real Shine stand. This small business was located on the North side of Fourth Avenue North midway in the 1900 block of Birmingham.
This view of Birmingham's Linn Park by O.V. Hunt shows the memorial statue of teacher and Alabama Education Association member Mary Callahan, by sculptor Giuseppe Moretti, and the Alabama Power Company building in the back.
A crowd attends a concert in Avondale Park in Birmingham, ca. 1925, in this O.V. Hunt photograph.
