Harry Forrest Annas was born in Washington, Iowa, on February 27, 1897. After serving in France during World War I, Harry Forrest Annas studied photography at Dad Lively's School of Photography in McMinnville, Tennessee.  Annas' career as a photographer began in Iowa, where he opened two photography studios.   During the depths of the Great Depression, Annas relocated to Lockhart, Texas. In 1933, he purchased a studio in Lockhart's town square. The studio prospered, and over the next forty years Annas amassed a sizeable photographic archive consisting of studio portrait work, weddings, parades, fairs, and other civic events.  Shortly before his death in 1980, Annas donated the bulk of the photographic material (over 90,000 negatives and 80,000 prints) to the Caldwell County Historical Society, which in turn donated the archive to the Center for American History in 1985.