Hugh Morrison Jr. (1871–1950)
Hugh Morrison Jr., son of Hugh Starke and Susan Ellick Morrison, was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia. There his father operated a photography studio where young Hugh grew up learning the craft. By the late 1890s Hugh Morrison Jr. was a traveling photographer in and around Shenandoah County. He obtained a professional license in 1898 and leased a building on West Court Street in Woodstock to use as his studio in 1899. That same year he married Grace Johnson.

The Morrisons built a home on North Main Street in Woodstock. There they raised eight sons and two daughters and enjoyed 51 years together. In 1909 Morrison purchased the studio building, and his business continued to thrive. He weathered the Great Depression and in 1932 even opened a second studio, located in Strasburg. But the Woodstock studio remained his primary location, and he worked successfully there his entire career.    

Hugh Morrison Jr. had many interests. An avid gardener, he raised vegetables and livestock on a nearby lot he called his “farm.” He also enjoyed reading. His library included books on history, medicine, geography, wildlife, and gardening, among other subjects. A devoted family man, Morrison was respected in the community and served as the mayor of Woodstock from 1926 until 1938. After he died in 1950, his son Louis operated the studio for more than three decades, until his death in 1984. Louis’s son James, the fourth generation in his family to work as a photographer, closed the business four years later.

Hugh Morrison Jr.’s wife, Grace (1879–1968). The baby she is holding is probably their first child, George, who was born in 1900. Hugh Morrison Jr. and his wife, Grace, pose in front of their Woodstock residence in about 1918 and are accompanied by nine of their ten children: George, Harold, Hugh III, Robert, Helen, Louis, Frank, John, and Tommy.

This photograph from around 1910 shows, left to right, Hugh Starke Morrison (1840–1925), Hugh Morrison Jr., and Hugh Morrison III (1904–1973).