The Domino Danzero Photograph Collection (M 71) is a collection of photographs created by local photographer Domino Danzero. Danzero was born in 1871 in Turin, Italy, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1890.  He worked for the Frisco Railroad as a Harvey House inspector, but due to his talent with photography, he was given permission to stop any Frisco train on which he was a passenger to photograph an area, whenever he wanted.  Many of his photographs were printed on Harvey House postcards. Danzero also developed a technique for creating time-lapse photographs, which he later sold to the Eastman Kodak Company for $200.

Danzero settled with his wife, Bridget, and daughter, Angelina, in the Ozarks in the early 1900s.  They first lived in Rogers, Arkansas, but then moved to Springfield, Missouri, in 1907, where their second daughter, Leola, was born.

While in Springfield, Danzero started several businesses: Domino’s Café (1908), Domino’s Bakery (1910), and Domino’s Macaroni factory (1917).  In 1923, he was diagnosed with diabetes and warned that he didn’t have long to live.  The family decided to liquidate their assets in order to travel and enjoy each other while they could.  During this time, Danzero focused on photography again, and the majority of the collection comes from this time period.  Despite his doctor’s prognosis, Danzero didn’t pass away until 1952 at the age of 81.

The collection contains 11 cubic feet of photographic images, including printed photographs, film negatives, and glass plate negatives, as well as examples of his time-lapse technique and of hand-tinting.  The State Archives digitized the Missouri-related images and created metadata in 2010.  The originals, including images of places outside of Missouri and around the world, are held by Meyer Library.  The digitized portion of the collection can be accessed on the Missouri Digital Heritage website.