Three Early Itinerant Daguerreians in West Chester
George Lloyd | Warren & Company | Andrew B. Tubbs
West Chester was a logical market for a constant stream of itinerant daguerreotypists between 1842 and 1849. As the county seat, the town’s economy revolved around the calendar of the court. Among the residents were plenty of lawyers, bankers, doctors, educators and merchants. Every Thursday the market stalls along Market Street played host to local farmers selling their products. Stores of all kinds provided necessary goods along Gay Street in the center of the borough.
George Lloyd
Not only was West Chester an affluent county seat, it was also conveniently located at the cross-roads of two major roads – a north-south road that led from Wilmington to Pottstown and an east-west road from Philadelphia called the West Chester Pike, making it a convenient stop over for itinerants.
One of the early itinerants to visit West Chester was George Lloyd, who describes himself as being from Philadelphia. He placed the following advertisement in the Village Record newspaper on February 17, 1846.
Identical ads ran in the Village Record on April 28, 1846 and in the American Republican newspapers on February 24 and March 17, 1846. Lloyd found enough business in the county seat to keep him busy for at least those two months. His location across from the Market House, which in 1846 were a series of sheds for farmers to sell their produce, was a prime location. It cannot be known how many future Daguerreians’ curiousity was peaked or were trained through his offer to give instructions in the art.
Lloyd’s travels do appear in many other sources; Craig’s Daguerrean Registry records him in Lancaster in 1845[1].
Warren & Company
A favorite room to rent for itinerants was the third floor above Joseph J. Lewis’ office on Market Street in West Chester. This building was close to the Chester County Courthouse and featured long bright windows, the perfect light for making portraits.
Advertising in The Village Record between October 12 and November 2, 1847, Warren & Co. occupied the room above Lewis’ office on Market Street in West Chester.
Andrew B. Tubbs, 1801-?
In West Chester for “but a few days” was A. B. Tubbs, who also rented the room above Lewis’ office. The announcement of the opening of his daguerreotype gallery uses the bluntest sales pitch, totally lacking literary nuances common in that day. The announcement in the July 17, 1849 edition of the Jeffersonian reads:
Andrew B. Tubbs itinerant life can be traced in other sources. He can be found in Harrisburg with daguerreotypist George W. Collomar living in his household according to the 1850 Federal Census[4]. Tubbs was born in New York and has a wife and 3-year-old daughter with him. Linda Ries and Jay Ruby compilers of the Directory of Pennsylvania Photographers 1839-1900 record Tubbs at Carlisle in 1854, in Danville, PA 1855 traveling to Covert, Farmer and New York, New York. He is even found partnering with L.G. J. Shick in Harrisburg in 1855[5]. Still active in about 1864-1865, Tubbs was an itinerant in the region of Farmer Village, Senaca County, New York[6].
© Pamela C. Powell, 2019
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Craig’s Daguerreian Registry http://craigcamera.com/dag/ ↑
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The Village Record, (West Chester, PA), 2 November 1847. ↑
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Jeffersonian, (West Chester, PA), 17 July 1849. ↑
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1850 Census: Harrisburg West War, Dauphin, Pennsylvania; Roll M432_774; Page 23B; Image 52. ↑
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Linda Ries and Jay Ruby, comp. Directory of Pennsylvania Photographers 1839-1900. (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission, 1999), page 279. ↑
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Carl Mautz, Biographies of Western Photographers, revised and expanded ed., (Nevada City, California: Carl Mautz Publishing, 2018), 593. ↑
