Bayard Wootten Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1875 - d. 1959

Mary Bayard Morgan Wootten (1875–1959) was an American photographer. She named Pepsi Cola and created its iconic logo for her neighbor Caleb Bradham, the drink's inventor.

Wootten was the first woman to take a photograph from an airplane in 1914, above her home town of New Bern, North Carolina. Wootten was also the first woman in the National Guard, making the rank of Adjutant General and Chief of Publicity. Her uncle was North Carolina Congressman, Hap Barden. Wootten utilized Barden's power by providing images she made of a deteriorating Camp Bragg. Her images of soldiers living in squalor helped save it from closure. Today, we know it as Fort Bragg.

Wootten's photography illustrated five books during her lifetime, including Charleston: Azalias and Old Bricks, North Carolina Homes and Gardens and From My Highest Hill. Her images fill UNC at Chapel Hill year books and newspapers, while her larger than life Pictorialist photographs line North Carolina State Government building walls and Court Houses. A book by Jerry Cotton titled Light and Air was a brief description in words and pictures about Wootten. Anthony Paul Lilly, a New Bern native as well, has written a feature script about Wootten's life and is also publishing a series of books with Fahey/ Klein Gallery in Beverly Hills about Wootten in conjunction with UNC at Chapel Hill.

His Wootten-Moulton Museum collection holds hundreds of family letters and business papers detailing the working relationship with Caleb Bradham. During his research he also uncovered Wootten's original concept drawings of the famous drink.

In addition to her work as a pioneering photographer and artist, Wootten was a staunch advocate for women's shelter who used her standing and reputation throughout the south to aid women's organizations including the Women's Missionary League. In 1915 she became the President of the League's publicity department, creating all official portraits.

In 1913 her portraiture became popular at Camp Bragg. Delivery of her portraits to Gregg Cherry, at the time an ordinary soldier at Camp Bragg, led to a rush of orders.

Wootten was granted permission to open a photographic studio on the base, (The Photo Hut ) and Wooten eventually received the first commission for a woman in the National Guard. Her early client, Lieutenant Cherry, became North Carolina's 61st Governor. Cherry Point air station and base was named after Cherry, as well as Cherry Hospital.

The Wootten-Moulton Studio received The Showmanship Award from The Walt Disney Company for outstanding achievements in professional photography.