Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Gurney's Daguerrean Saloon

One of my distant ancestors, Jeremiah Gurney (1812 – 1895), opened the first American photo gallery in New York in 1840.


But in those days Jeremiah didn't call them photographs. He called them "Daguerrean Sketches."


Jeremiah's studio was at 189 ("100 AND 89") Broadway in New York from 1843 to 1853.

Thanks, Katherine Tyrrell!
Images from Grand Monde
Previously: Goldsworthy Gurney's Steam Carriages
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8 comments:

  1. SEOctober 26, 2011 at 11:21 AM

    Interesting lil' titbit of your family history there. (Hope Grandpa Gurney didn't get mercury poisoning.)

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  2. T. ArispeOctober 26, 2011 at 11:26 AM

    Wow, that's amusing. I suppose photographs could be considered sketches of a sort...

    It seems like your family has always been into art in some form or another.

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  3. UnknownOctober 27, 2011 at 5:49 AM

    What fascinates me, is that Americans can go way back into their family tree so easily. Probably because they're all immigrants in some sort of way, and the family past is better and officialy documented...

    I wouldn't know what my ancestors were doing in 1840... Probably farming, like 75% of all Belgians in that era...

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  4. GardenartOctober 28, 2011 at 1:03 AM

    Your family is so fascinating! The common thread I see in your family history posts is curiosity and an eagerness/ willingness to do things that have never been done before!
    So interesting. -Alice

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  5. Terry AlphonseFebruary 17, 2013 at 8:16 PM

    I'm curious how you are related to Jeremiah and Benjamin Gurney. There are no direct descendants of
    the famous photography team of J Gurney & Son.
    Thanks Terry

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  6. James GurneyFebruary 17, 2013 at 8:29 PM

    Terry, I quickly checked my genealogy again. I'm not sure if it's the same one, but there's a Jeremiah from Abington, MA who goes back through Richard, Zachariah, Nathan, and Noah. Gurney is a pretty unusual name in the USA, so just about everyone I've met traces back to the same lineage if you go far back enough. I'll look into it again and see if I can track down something more definite.

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  7. Terry AlphonseFebruary 17, 2013 at 8:35 PM

    Jeremiah came from a large family, but he only had 2 children - Martha who had no children, and Benjamin who had a daughter Grace. Grace married a doctor in Manhattan and they had no children.
    Perhaps you are from Jeremiah's siblings.
    Terry

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  8. UnknownMay 4, 2014 at 10:55 AM

    Hi James,

    Skinner auction house is selling some of your relative's dags:

    http://www.skinnerinc.com/search?s=gurney

    Kind regards,

    Larry Heyda

    ReplyDelete

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