Where is Chester County?
What Made it Attractive to Photographers?
Chester County is situated twenty-five miles west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in verdant rolling hills. It was one of the original three counties in William Penn’s Holy Experiment to give people of all faiths an opportunity to live together in peace away from the tyranny of European governments.
Formerly the home of the Lenni Lenape, it was settled by Germans in the north, Scots-Irish Presbyterians in the west, and English & Welsh Quakers in the south and east.
During the time period of our study (1839-1900) the county was largely a flourishing agricultural community. In the northern and western parts of the county an iron industry was growing rapidly fueled by the needs of the industrial revolution.
Chester County would have been an attractive market for photographers. West Chester had become the county seat in 1786. It was the center of the well-educated gentry of the county, with many law offices, banks and educational institutions in the Borough.
The business activity flourished around High, Church and Gay Streets which were packed with shops. Market Street hosted a weekly farmer market in stalls on the extra wide street.
Any town that boasted its own natural history museum with the Chester County Cabinet of Sciences as well as the Chester County Microscopical Society, was ripe for the early itinerant daguerreotypists to find a receptive public.
During the 1840s, West Chester Pike brought daguerreotypists west from Philadelphia. From West Chester, they could travel north to Pottstown or south to Wilmington or Baltimore. This made the county an attractive stop in Pennsylvania. The first recorded daguerreotypist visited the borough in 1842.
During the 1850s and 60s when the need became established in our culture for photographers’ studios the larger boroughs and towns in the county were ideal locations. This included the industrial centers of Phoenixville and Coatesville, as well as the farming communities of Oxford and Kennett Square.
Not only did itinerants visit the county, but county residents were eager early students in the new art. George Pyle of rural West Marlborough Township took lessons in 1846 from John Jabez Edwin Mayall of Philadelphia. He purchased all his equipment from his teacher and set out on an adventure that took him as far west as Indiana. Take a look at our Photography Teachers list in the resources section to see who taught the craft through the years.
