Window in time — Amateur photographer captured anything that moved under its own power

Bill Winther loved planes, trains and automobiles. And more than that, he loved taking pictures of them.

And why not? The ability of things to move under their own power was undergoing dramatic change in the early part of the 20th century — and so was the ability to capture those machines on film. Winther grew up amid those changes and developed a lifelong interest in them.

Winther had been born in the little fishing village of Kolbjornsvik, on the island of Arendal, off the coast of Norway, on March 21, 1907, the youngest of six children. Like many other converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his parents decided to immigrate to America.

But, because the family was too poor for all of them to make the trip at once, the father, Hans, and the oldest son, Nils, made the journey first.

The two Winthers arrived in Salt Lake City and found work on the railroad, where they earned enough money to send for other family members.

Bill Winther was 4 years old when he arrived in America. Some of the family stayed in Salt Lake City, but Hans, and his wife, Johanne Amalie, and several of their sons took advantage of the Homestead Act and obtained the rights to a dry farm in Dehlin, Idaho.

Hans had been a ship's carpenter by trade in Norway, and dry framing was vastly different. The family struggled along. Then Johanne Amalie contracted scarlet fever and died. The Winthers ended up selling the farm and moving back to Salt Lake City.

But you wonder if perhaps on long winter nights on the farm, Hans talked to his son about his experience with the railroad. Perhaps working with the farm machinery of the day also captured the boy's interest.

"All his life, Bill had a keen interest in anything mechanical," says A. Dennis Mead, whose grandmother was Bill Winther's sister. That interest even turned into Bill's life work. "After a time working as a truck driver, hauling coal for the operation of the Salt Lake Laundry at 857 S. Main in Salt Lake City, he eventually obtained a job as a mechanic for International Harvester, where he remained until his retirement."

That career was complemented by Winther's interest in photography. "As soon as he was able to buy a camera, he began to photograph anything that moved under its own power," says Mead. "He would take his camera everywhere he went — to family picnics, to airports, to car races and to the streets and byways of Salt Lake City. It was as though his camera were an extension of his arm."