John Gibson, Family Man

One thing that really impressed me about Coatesville’s long-time photographer John Gibson, was that he was a real family man. He and his first wife Sallie had a daughter Annie, born on May 20, 1868. Sadly, Sallie passed away in 1872 leaving him with the little four-year-old girl.

For many people in that era, when spouses passed away, the remaining spouse could not handle both business and family and the children were dispersed with relatives. Not John Gibson. He kept Annie close, no doubt the two grieved together. Gibson had lost his father when he was very young too. In a few years when Gibson married Catherine Amanda Crowl who he knew from childhood, Annie was part of the deal.

It was no surprise when Annie became a photographer herself. No doubt she had been helping her father all these years in his gallery. According to family history in the Thomas Urbine Collection at the Chester County History Center she moved to Philadelphia where she worked as a photographer. She died in 1946 and was unmarried. She is listed in the 1900 U.S. Census as a photo printer who lives in a boarding house in Philadelphia. I am curious to find out more about her time as a studio worker, so often records are scarce to document women’s careers.