Henry B. Freeman

Freeman advertised the opening of his daguerreotype studio in West Chester, Pennsylvania in The Village Record on April 17, 1849:

His phrasing in the sentence “I should have advertised sooner… but the rush of citizens of West Chester to my Gallery has been so great, that I thought I would wait until it was somewhat over” infers he has had a mad rush of customers who heard of his new found skill by word of mouth. More likely it is simply an advertising ploy to make you want to hurry off to his establishment on Market Street.

Identical advertisements were run that year in the May 22 and June 5 editions of the Village Record.^[2] No advertisements appear after that, so we do not know if he produced daguerreotypes for only a short time, or if it was a continued service. Was he so successful he did not need to advertise or did he decide that selling watches and jewelry was much easier than taking daguerreotypes? Since he sold jewelry, it certainly was an opportunity to set daguerreotypes into lockets and pins. He does not specify this in the advertisement, but it seems like a logical match.

He also prominently features his connection to his teacher, Marcus Aurelias Root (1808-1888) of Philadelphia. Root was a renown daguerreotypist and instructed many of the foremost daguerreotypists of that era in the art. He made his first daguerreotype in 1839 and opened his gallery in 1843 in Philadelphia. Root photographed many of the prominent people of the day including Jenny Lind, P.T. Barnum, Tom Thumb and Edgar Allen Poe.^[3] He also wrote one of the first histories of photography entitled, The Camera and the Pencil published in 1864.

Henry B. Freeman was born on July 18, 1823, probably in Chester County. The first mention of his business is an announcement in the Register & Examiner on January 25, 1848 of moving his location to 16 E. Market St., West Chester. His business included selling watches, clocks, jewelry and eyeglasses. Through the years he offered a wide range of Elgin clocks and watches, jewelry, eyeglasses and even canaries and bird supplies.

From all the newspaper reports he was a respectable businessman. But he was part of a disturbing event in West Chester’s story which occurred July 30, 1862. For an unknown reason, there was a disturbance in the borough’s Georgetown section. Soon a crowd gathered, shouting and throwing stones at the home of an African American couple, Adam and Catherine Nutter. For a while the Nutters waited for the crowd to dissipate. But becoming more energized the mob broke down the couple’s door and began attacking Adam Nutter. He wrested one of the billy clubs away from an attacker and made short work of dispersing the rioters.^[4] The police arrived on the scene and rounded up a few people who had not fled. Henry B. Freeman was among them. He appeared in Court of Quarter Sessions on August 14, 1862 for inciting a riot but was found not guilty.^[5]

Freeman continued in business until an advertisement placed by Mrs. H.B. Freeman in the Daily Local News on December 21, 1874 announced the closing of the business due to the illness of her husband. He had suffered a paralytic stroke which left him unable to continue in business. Mrs. Freeman was also operating a millinery business within his store.

Henry B. Freeman died on February 12, 1878 after suffering for three years with the effects of the stroke^[6]. He was only fifty-four years old and was buried in Greenmount Cemetery outside West Chester, PA^[7]. Freeman had married Susan Marshall in about 1847 and the couple had six children: William Henry Marshall Freeman, Wesley B., Emma L. Frances P., Clara and Frank B. Freeman^[8]. He had been active in the West Chester Methodist Church and in the Independent Order of the Red Men. A resolution in his honor was published in the Daily Local News, February 21, 1878 by I.O.R.M. Uppowoc Tribe #47 West Chester.^[9] Chalkley Valentine, also a West Chester daguerreotypist, was on the committee.

© Pamela C. Powell, 2019.