Ten year old Dave Tabler decided he was going to read the ‘R’ volume from the family’s World Book Encyclopedia set over summer vacation. He never made it from beginning to end. He did, however, become interested in Norman Rockwell, rare-earth elements, and Run for the Roses.
Tabler’s father encouraged him to try his hand at taking pictures with the family camera. With visions of Rockwell dancing in his head, Tabler press-ganged his younger brother into wearing a straw hat and sitting next to a stream barefoot with a homemade fishing pole in his hand. The resulting image was terrible.
Dave Tabler went on to earn degrees in art history and photojournalism despite being told he needed a ‘Plan B.'
Fresh out of college, Tabler contributed the photography for “The Illustrated History of American Civil War Relics,” which taught him how to work with museum curators, collectors, and white cotton gloves. He met a man in the Shenandoah Valley who played the musical saw, a Knoxville fellow who specialized in collecting barbed wire, and Tom Dickey, brother of the man who wrote ‘Deliverance.’
In 2006 Tabler circled back to these earlier encounters with Appalachian culture as an idea for a blog. AppalachianHistory.net today reaches 375,000 readers a year.
Dave Tabler moved to Delaware in 2010 and became smitten with its rich past. He no longer copies Norman Rockwell, but his experience working with curators and collectors came in handy when he got the urge to photograph a love letter to Delaware’s early heritage. This may be the start of something.
Birth Place: Champaign, IL USA
Books
Delaware at Christmas by Dave Tabler A fascinating glimpse into the rich and diverse holiday traditions of one of America's most historically significant states....
Delaware from Freeways to E-ways by Dave Tabler Spanning a century of innovation from 1900 to 2000, discover how Delaware has made a huge contribution to our shared history...
Delaware Before the Railroads by Dave Tabler If you think you know Delaware, think again. Pirates? Quakers fighting with Pennsylvania? Towns so ugly no one would settle there? With stunning pictures and straightforward storytelling, Dave Tabler opens hidden passages and describes defining moments in this founding American colony. Telling this small state’s story gives you a sense of the big picture in American history....
Delaware from Railways to Freeways by Dave Tabler https://www.goodreads.com/videos/199590-trailer-for-delaware-from-railways-to-freeways Our tiny state continues to make an oversized impact on today’s America. Explore the mind-blowing facts that give Delaware a unique place in history....
Short Stories ( View all 3 stories ) She Denied to the Last. by Dave Tabler In 1731, Catherine Bevan and her servant Peter Murphy were executed at New Castle, Delaware for the murder of her husband Henry — she by burning, he by hanging. The only woman ever executed by burning... My First Audience by Dave Tabler How an eight-year-old's ink sketch sparked a lifelong impulse to share stories... The Fourth-Grade Paper That Gave Me Away by Dave Tabler It already revealed the storyteller I would later become....