Mollie's Miracle

C.S. Fly’s industrious wife saved historical views of Territorial Arizona from going up in flames.

- Susan L. Sorg

The rough and tumble days of Tombstone, life in nearby silver mines and that defiant stare of Geronimo’s all live on in black-and-white images thanks to the quick eye and daring nature of a tall photographer named Camillus S. Fly. Give a bigger hand to his wife, Mollie, for her foresight to preserve these moments, frozen in time in glass plates and negatives.

Born in Illinois in 1847, Mary Edith “Mollie” McKie was already a photographer when she met C.S. in San Francisco, California, in the late 1870s. Little is known about her early life, including why she divorced her first husband, Samuel D. Goodrich.