Welcome

Welcome to Chester County Photographist – your go to resource for information on the history of photography in Chester County, Pennsylvania 1839-1900.

For our first posting you will find biographies of the major photographers with long careers in our major towns: Thomas Taylor in West Chester, Alexander McCormick in Oxford and J.B. Gibson in Coatesville. A special feature has been graciously shared by Phoenixville Historian, Kevin Stuart, his work on the photographers of Phoenixville. Anyone with Phoenixville photographs in their collection will appreciate his meticulous research.

Also presented are some of the earliest advertisements for itinerant daguerreotypists in West Chester. Did you know an early itinerant daguerreotypist who made the rounds through Oxford, Pennsylvania also photographed the eclipse in 1867? Take a look at Oliver H. Willard’s biography.

These photographers had interesting lives too – see how John Branson’s dreams collide with the reality of the financial hard times during the Panic of 1873. Dreams of a happy life for John Odiorne crumbled when his wife leaves him for a career on the stage.

Also included are two portrait artists from West Chester. Eber Woodward’s prolific studio furnished families with remembrances of their sons, husbands and fathers who enlisted in local regiments during the Civil War. While at the fin de siècle William Haverstick took portraits using the artistic processes of the day – such as platinum and matte collodion.

More biographies are being prepared to be added, so watch for updates!