I’ve found some more photographers to add to the map of New York. Again, you’ve got to love some of these self-descriptions of their businesses. Also interesting is the case of C.D. Fredericks, who ran studios in New York, Paris and Havana. Makes you wonder how he managed three studios in such far-flung cities at a time where steam-powered trans-atlantic crossings were just coming in to being, there was no telephone, and the airplane was still an opium-smoker’s dream.
I’ve reorganized the list in geographic order, with the assorted Lower Manhattan addresses first, then the ascent of Broadway, followed by the odds and outliers, including one in Brooklyn.
STUDIO NAME
ADDRESS
DATES OF OPERATION
R.A. Lewis
152 Chatham Street *
unknown
R.A. Lord
164 Chatham Street *
unknown
K.W. Beniczky
#2 New Chambers Street, corner of Chatham *
unknown
Vaughan’s Gallery
228 Bowery
unknown
H. Merz
E. Houston & Essex Streets
unknown
Bailey’s Photograph Gallery
371 Canal Street
unknown
O.O. Roorbach, Publisher of Dramatic Photographs
122 Nassau Street
unknown
Mathew Brady
643 Bleeker Street
(1859-1860)
Jaquith, Daguerrian Parlor
98 Broadway
unknown
S.A. Holmes, Daguerreotype Studio
289 Broadway
unknown
Josiah Thompson, Daguerreotypist
315 Broadway
1849-1853
J. Gurney & Sons, Daguerreotype Studio
349 Broadway
unknown – early
Mathew Brady
359 Broadway
(1853-1859)
Bogardus
363 Broadway
1860s
E. Anthony, Publisher, Brady’s National Portrait Gallery
501 Broadway
unknown
W.C. Wemyss, Dealer in Photographs, Books, &c.
575 Broadway
unknown
C.D. Fredericks & Co 587 Broadway, New York 31 Passage du Havre, Paris 108 Calle de la Habana, Havana
587 Broadway
unknown
Anson’s Daguerreotype Gallery
589 Broadway
unknown – 1850s
Chas. K. Bill
603 Broadway
unknown
J. Gurney & Sons
707 Broadway
unknown – mid
Mathew Brady
785 Broadway
(1860-)
Glosser
827 Broadway
unknown
Bogardus
872 Broadway
late 1870s
T.J. Maujer, Passepartout & Carved Walnut frame manufacturer, Dealer in Photographs, Artist’s Materials, &c.
953 Broadway & 183 5th Avenue
unknown
J. Gurney & Sons
5th Avenue & 16th Street
unknown – late
Loud’s Celebrated Album Cards
unknown
unknown
Fernando Dessaur
145 8th Avenue
unknown
Estabrook’s Ferrotypes
379 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
unknown
* addresses no longer exist. New Chambers Street & Chatham Street are now approximately where New York City Civic Center and Police Headquarters are now located.
Another CDV added to the collection. My first Mathew Brady CDV with the Washington DC studio imprint. I suspect that she was a circus sideshow performer, because even in the Victorian era when zaftig women were more popular, she is not the kind of zaftig that the Victorians found sexy.
Also note the book under her foot. I suspect it was just a posing prop to give her body some form and dynamic, but it would be interesting to know if there were something meaningful to the book underfoot. Books were a very common studio prop, usually held in the hand, to indicate that the subject was literate and had some kind of intellectual accomplishment. By extension, stepping on a book would seem to imply a deliberately and blatantly anti-intellectual attitude, which would have been at extreme odds with the contemporary ethos, and would seem out of character for a studio like Mathew Brady’s – he went out of his way to cultivate associations with the best and the brightest of his day. So it’s probably just a posing device, no meaning implied.
Just added two more cartes-de-visite to the collection, both Mathew Bradys. My first Brady celebrity card – General Joseph Hooker, and my first Brady from his Washington studio. The DC studio mark seems far more rare than the New York studio, so far. Maybe I’m just not looking in the right places for them, but out of the seven I have, only one is the DC studio, and of the ones I’ve looked at, maybe 50 or so, I think I’ve only seen the DC imprint two or three times.
I’ve begun a project to catalog and map the locations of Victorian-era photography studios in Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia. Using my own collection as a starting point, and skimming back-marks off cartes-de-visite and cased images on Ebay, I’ve come up with some lists, and I’ve begun to put them on a Google Map. Here is my New York list:
STUDIO NAME
ADDRESS
DATES OF OPERATION
R.A. Lewis
152 Chatham Street *
unknown
K.W. Beniczky
#2 New Chambers Street, corner of Chatham *
unknown
R.A. Lord
164 Chatham Street *
unknown
Bogardus
363 Broadway
1860s
Bogardus
872 Broadway
late 1870s
Mathew Brady
359 Broadway
(1853-1859)
Mathew Brady
643 Bleeker Street
(1859-1860)
Mathew Brady
785 Broadway
(1860-)
Chas. K. Bill
603 Broadway
unknown
J. Gurney & Sons
707 Broadway
unknown – early
J. Gurney & Sons
5th Avenue & 16th Street
unknown – late
Glosser
827 Broadway
unknown
Vaughan’s Gallery
228 Bowery
unknown
Bailey’s Photograph Gallery
371 Canal Street
unknown
Loud’s Celebrated Album Cards
unknown
unknown
Fernando Dessaur
145 8th Avenue
unknown
* addresses no longer exist. New Chambers Street & Chatham Street are now approximately where New York City Civic Center and Police Headquarters are now located.
I will be doing the same for Washington DC and Philadelphia as I gather more information. These lists are obviously incomplete – if anyone has more information out there on other studios not captured on this list, please pass it along! My interest is in studios operating before 1900, ideally before 1880. If you have information about a given studio during the Daguerrian, wet plate, and the early Dry Plate eras, please include that as well. In my simplistic research, I’ve been finding that along with the change in media, studios moved around a lot – Mathew Brady had four different locations in New York City alone between 1850-1860.
dcphotoartist 