Charles Alfred Garrett – Part 1

C. Alfred Garrett came from a Quaker family with extraordinary convictions and achievements. His grandfather was Thomas Garrett the renowned stationmaster on the Underground Railroad who aided 2700 enslaved people to gain their freedom. His grandfather became a household name in 1848 when he went on trial for aiding a family of freedom seekers. After facing a stiff fine and an admonition from the judge to desist, Thomas Garrett proclaimed that he would not give up his work on the Underground Railroad, instead he invited more freedom seekers to come to him for aid. This dynamic man left a profound impression on everyone who knew him.

C. Alfred Garret’s father Ellwood was noteworthy as an early pioneer of photography in the state of Delaware. Ellwood Garrett was cited in the book, Wilmington, Delaware: Three Centuries Under Four Flags, 1609-1937, as having made the earliest daguerreotype in the state and possibly the nation. The book provides the following detail: “Perhaps the earliest daguerreotype [sic] machine in the United States was the one sent to Elwood Garrett by English Friends. A silver plate containing the name of M. Daguerre and the number eight showed it to be one the first made by the inventor. Mr. Garrett had read of this invention and had made for himself a crude camera from a cigar box, and the copper plate was sensitized by flattening out a silver quarter dollar and then fumed with the proper chemicals. His first “shot” was directed toward a silver door knob on a house opposite his own. This the first sun-made picture in Wilmington and possibly in the United States, was the fore-runner of the now common-place and innumerable artistic and valuable snap-shots by amateurs and professionals.^[1]” These claims, however, cannot be verified beyond this source. The whereabouts of the daguerreotype camera #8 and the experimental plate is not known, but it demonstrates that Elwood Garrett took an early interest in the art long before he entered into the business.

Born in 1840, Charles Alfred Garrett was the eldest son of Ellwood and Catherine Garrett of Wilmington, Delaware^[2]. A machinist by trade, Ellwood’s health and financial fortunes had its ups and downs. In 1842 he moved out of Wilmington to a farm in Herford, Maryland on account of “ill health.^[3]” Once his health was improved, he advertised the farm for sale in 1847 and returned to Wilmington opening a machine shop that produced sash, shutters and washstands.

Tragedy struck in 1849 when his shop was burned to the ground by an arsonist^[4]. Unfortunately, his shop was located so far from the available public water system that the building was uninsurable.

Ellwood Garrett needed to feed his growing family with only a small investment. After studying daguerreotypy with Samuel Broadbent, he opened his own studio at 66 Market Street in Wilmington in 1850^[5]. Ellwood’s sister Sarah Hewes, recently widowed with three small children, also learned the art. Partnered with Broadbent, she became the operator of a studio in West Chester, on the upper floor of what is today known as the Lincoln Building^[6].

Ever since he was a young teenager, Alfred helped his father in his studio. He would have learned the daguerreotype and ambrotype processes as well as photography on paper from his father. Ellwood’s studio in Wilmington was taken over by sons Maurice and Warren in 1870 which they continued until 1888^[7].

In 1860, when C. Alfred Garrett became 20 years old, he was eager to go out on his own and open his own gallery. That first gallery was not located where you might expect. The opening was announced by the Louisville Courier-Journal in Kentucky.

The gallery received its moniker from its prime location above two telegraph offices belonging to Western Union and South Western^[9]. An expanded advertisement appeared on May 11, 1860:

Identical advertisements next appeared June 10 and October 27, 1860 and then frequently between January and June 1861. The text of the advertisements was always the same.

We may never know the events that brought the two men together to go into business so far from their home states. Nickerson hailed from Massachusetts, Garrett from Delaware. Why would they choose Kentucky? In 1860 Louisville was the 12^th largest city in the nation. It was known as a major hub for transportation of goods via steamboats on the Ohio River. In 1830 a canal was built circumventing the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, this created a direct route from Pittsburgh to New Orleans^[11]. Goods such as cotton, sugar cane and wheat were major commodities.

Louisville also had a reputation as a major slave auction city. Here enslaved people were sold south, separating them from family with little hope of ever seeing them again. Louisville offered the last chance to “cross over the Jordan” to freedom in the north.

George H. Nickerson was born in Centreville, Massachusetts in 1835 and studied photography with James Wallace Black a well-known Boston photographer. Nickerson is listed in the U.S. Census for Louisville in 1860 as a twenty-seven-year-old photographer^[12]. He was boarding at 408 E. Walnut St. in the household of twenty-nine-year-old seamstress named Elizabeth Baxter, who had three small children. Garrett’s only address in the 1860 Louisville city directory was that of the studio at 213 W. Main St^[13]. If he was living in the studio this would account for why he was not recorded in the 1860 census.

We can document that Garrett and Nickerson were in Louisville from May 1860 through June 1861, but evidence suggests that by 1862 both had returned to their home states.

They advertised a variety of services, including photographs finished in water colors for five dollars^[14] and life-sized portraits for twenty dollars^[15]. In a wise public relations move, Nickerson photographed the local newspaper’s new building and received the following glowing review:

Another interesting job they had was reported in the expense claims for the local police department. Nickerson was paid $12 for taking “daguerreotypes of thieves” ^[17].

While in Louisville the duo created a noteworthy body of work that is the legacy of their time there. Garrett and Nickerson went on location with the Kentucky State Guard when they assembled on August 23, 1860 for a week of training at Camp Boone. They produced salted paper prints showing views of camp life, parading and drilling as well as portraits of the commanding officers. The original prints were tipped into a book titled “Sketches of Camp Boone” and was published by G. T. Shaw, the daguerreotypist whose gallery they had purchased. The work included the history of the unit. Only five copies of the work are known to exist^[18].

The State Guard was established March 5, 1860 by the Kentucky State Legislature in response to the events at Harper’s Ferry in 1859. Being a border state, the Legislature took a neutral position establishing the State Guard for home defense. However it was not long before they had to make a choice, while the legislature sided with the Union, many of the guardsmen left to join the Confederacy.

Garrett and Nickerson brought a portable dark tent into the field with them for their work. They made 6 x 8 collodion glass plate negatives, producing eleven outdoor views for the album. The enterprising pair captured views of the encampment populated by 3,000 troops, their dress parade, and street scenes after the parade. They also took views of important dignitaries reviewing the troops, including the Governor of Kentucky, Major Hunt, Captain Hayes and Col. Frank Tryon. One of the scenes of a group of officers included Mary Todd Lincoln’s brother. The book opened with portraits of Major General Simon Bolivar Bruckner and eight officers in his staff. The partners produced all the salted paper prints for the sketchbook, which would have been a significant undertaking, since all the papers used were hand sensitized^[19].

While in Kentucky, Nickerson was also involved in raising a company of Union Men for a Home Guard militia, according to an advertisement placed in the Courier Journal May 25, 1861^[20].

We can’t be sure if business was not going well or it was a smart April Fool’s ploy for the Telegraph Gallery when this advertisement appeared in the April 1, 1861: “Nickerson says he will take pictures of everybody free of charge. Go and try him at the Telegraph Gallery.^[21]” Note that there is no mention of Garrett here.

By 1862 Both Garrett and Nickerson had returned to their home states. Nickerson was back in Orleans, Massachusetts where he married Mary Young on June 4, 1862^[22]. He then joined Company E., 43^rd Massachusetts Volunteer Militia that September with the rank of Second Lieutenant^[23]. He did for his own unit what he did for the Kentucky State Guard, producing views of the company in the field in New Bern, North Carolina. The Center for Civil War Photography quotes a letter written by Private Colman Tilden to his parents March 30, 1863 when he described the event: “Friday morning we had some photographs taken of the camp and the regiment. We were taken three times, the first time the regiment were on the march, marching in column by companies, guns at the right shoulder shift. The second we were formed in a hollow square at “charge bayonets” the third was at dress parade standing at “parade rest”. I understand they take a great many to be stuck off, and sold to the regiment. If they do and they are good ones I sill send home some.”^[24] The resulting views were dramatic and are now incredibly rare.

When Nickerson mustered out on July 30, 1863, he had attained the rank of First Lieutenant. In 1865 he established a photographic gallery in Orleans, MA and by 1872 moved to Provincetown on the Cape. Here he partnered with William May Smith producing portraits as well as stereographs of local scenery^[25]. Nickerson died in 1890 at the age of 53. He had been a commander of J. C. Freeman Post 55 G.A.R. His obituary noted that he was a man of “unswerving integrity, pleasing address and made friends everywhere.^[26]” These skills aided him in building a successful business.

A birthright member of the Society of Friends, C. Alfred Garrett made a difficult choice when he enlisted in the 5^th Delaware Infantry in fall of 1862^[27]. His desire to fight for the end of slavery cost him membership in the Society of Friends. He served for nine months in Co. E. His service may have included duty as garrison at Fort Delaware and guard duty on the line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad^[28]. An unfortunate accident brought tragedy, when Garrett attempted to repair fellow soldier John Crisfield’s gun. It discharged prematurely, shooting Crisfield in the face and killing him^[29]. The newspaper accounts noted that the accident occurred even though every safety precaution had been taken.

Garrett definitely drifted away from the testimony of Friends, meeting minutes cite that he was listening to hireling ministers, music and engaging in war^[30]. He was read out of Wilmington Monthly Meeting on 5 mo. 29th 1863. He then joined the Presbyterian Church in Wilmington that year^[31].

See Part 2 to discover the history of Garrett’s studios in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

©Pamela C. Powell, 2025