Charles Duval, F. McCutcheon and Robert T. West

The headline of the small handbill exclaimed: “New York in West Chester – Pictures for the Millions, for Thirty Days Only.” This handbill, printed by James Printing of West Chester in April of 1864^[1], gives us a snapshot of Duval’s flair for selling and his services. It declared:

Charles Duval partnered with Robert West’s fledgling studio above Worrall’s Book Store at 7 East Gay Street. West had already been making albumen cartes-de-visite and gem sized tintypes at that address previously. Cartes-de-visite in Chester County History Center’s collections reveal examples with hand stamped back marks and printed back marks complete with signed and dated IRS tax stamps.

Duval was a photographer with itchy feet. He has already told us that he came from France and has been in New York. In Gary Saretzsky’s List of New Jersey Photographers, we find a C. Duval listed at 29 ½ E. State Street in Trenton in about 1863^[2]. He describes himself as a photographer and photographic chemist, which fits with West Chester’s Charles Duval.

Duval knew the ropes for effective advertising, placing large size ads with boldface type in the popular Village Record newspaper. The May 10, 1864 edition of the Village Record features an advertisement hawking some exciting new services:

A reporter for the Village Record visited Duval & West’s Union Gallery remarking, “..which for truthfulness and finish are well executed, amongst them a Photograph likeness of our townsman, Colonel H. R. Guss, which is a fine specimen of the art^[3]..” Duval knew well that customers would patronize them if the beloved commander of West Chester’s 97^th Regiment had also.

Sometime between May and July, Duval and West terminated their partnership and Duval removed his gallery to the prominent corner of High and Market Streets opposite the Turk’s Head Hotel. An advertisement printed in the July 2^nd, 1864 edition of the Village Record read:

Charles Duval sold his gallery to F. McCutchen, as is announced in the Village Record on August 6, 1864: “F. McCutchen, Pupil of F. Gutekunst of Phila. Having purchased the Photograph Gallery of Charles Duval at the Corner of Market and High Sts., West Chester, Pa., herewith respectfully solicits your patronage..” furthermore he notes that he has “an able assistant, insuring excellence and dispatch.” Unlike Duval, McCutchen is inviting more outdoor work offering “Views, County Seats, Public Buildings, Farm Houses and Machinery Photographed at the shortest notice and reasonable rates.”

Frederick Gutekunst was the premier portrait photographer of his day in Philadelphia, spending his entire career in that city. His studio opened in 1860 and operated into the early twentieth century. His reputation enticed many famous people to his studio including Oliver Wendell Holmes, General Sherman, other Union generals and Mrs. Grover Cleveland^[4]. For McCutchen to identify himself as one was Gutekunst’s students was a real feather in his cap and sure to grab the attention of potential customers.

In a December 3, 1864 advertisement in the Village Record, McCutchen identified the able assistant as Mr. West. In fact, he is doing enough business to warrant two assistants:

McCutchen’s advertisement in the Village Record of March 25, 1865 announced a major improvement in his gallery, “respectfully inform the public that, having fitted up an entirely new skylight, on the most improved plan, and remodeled and enlarged his Photograph Gallery, is prepared to take Photographs, Ferrotypes, Ambrotypes, &c.”

According to data found in West Chester Tax Lists, Robert West was recorded for 1864 and 1865, McCutchen is only listed for 1865. No person named Fisher was recorded for 1864 or 1865^[5].

McCutcheon’s days in West Chester were not long. He sold his gallery to John Odiorne and Charles Shrieves, as it was reported in the Village Record newspaper on July 29, 1865. The partners took it over on August 1^st.

It is likely that Robert T. West opened a gallery in West Chester by or before 1864 and then entered into partnership with Charles Duval in April of 1864. When their partnership terminated in mid-1864 I believe that West continued on is his own. But when F. McCutchen was seeking an assistant, West came under his employ by December of 1864.

Robert West’s life changed forever on May 20, 1865 when he married Leah Jane Foster (1843-1888), daughter of shoemaker Thomas Foster and his wife Mary Ann^[6], at the Church of the Holy Trinity in West Chester^[7]. Faced with the responsibility of wife and children to support, West left photography and became a machinist at “the foundry on North Walnut Street”^[8] which describes the machine shop of Phillip Sharples. While living in the borough, West was a member of the First West Chester Fire Company.

West and his family left West Chester in 1877^[9] where he became a foreman in Theodore P. Apple’s tube plant in Burlington, New Jersey^[10]. Robert and Leah West had four children, Harry, Elberta, Robert and Mary^[11]. He married a second time in 1892^[12] after Leah’s death in 1888^[13]. He died in 1907 and was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Burlington, New Jersey^[14].

© Pamela C. Powell, 2018, updated 2021.