I've often thought that one of the keys to SW Sherman might be finding out how and where photographers of the day received their equipment and training, but I literally don't know where I would start to do that. I suspect he went to high school in the Memphis area, because Aunt Eva said that he was an avid reader of the classics, at least as long as his eyes held out.

She told of SW sitting close to the wood stove for warmth, with a lamp for light, and reading far into the night, even after a day's work on the farm. I wonder though, whether he might also have occasionally hired on at the shipyards in Seattle, especially since SW is absent as "head of family" from Coos Bay for the 1910 census—and since Val was employed at a shipyard as a teenager when he decided to enlist in the Navy.

Lots of stories to look for.