Irene R. Claxton (1922-2013) was a professional photographer from Dublin, Georgia. She is the daughter of Dr. E. B. Claxton (1883-1967), who practiced at the Claxton Hospital (Sanitarium), and Irene Robertson Claxton (1885-1981). She had two older sisters and a brother. The eldest was Iris, married to Alfred Eubanks, then Ellen, who married John Bell, Jr., also a doctor who practiced with E. B. Claxton, Sr., and brother E. B., Jr., who married Harriet Jones. Many of the images in this collection have to do with Irene’s parents, siblings and their children.
Irene graduated from Dublin High School in 1940, and attended Wesleyan College as well as Northwestern University and the University of Georgia. She attended photography school at the New York Institute of Photography and the Brooks Photography School in Santa Barbara, California.
Deaf since early childhood, Irene took to photography and captured on film her surroundings, family and friends, pets and animals, local news interests, portraits, and her own artistic imagery. She travelled all across the United States as well as Mexico, Cuba, and Europe throughout her life. She had a darkroom studio in a small house in the back yard of her home and devoted a great deal of time taking pictures of her life in Dublin.
