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Notes: Age at Death: 37Place of Death: Cabarrus County, NCSource: Source Date: 5/2/1886
Notes: Age at Death: 79Place of Death: Plymouth, Washington County, NCSource: Source Date: 2/21/1890
John or Jonathan C. Cushman first appears in the Charlotte City Directory in 1912. He and Harvey W. South ran the Photo Shop on 3 West 5th Street until 1920. Cushman was originally from New York and was born on November 6, 1882.
Henry Baumgarten was born on March 12, 1839 in what is now the province of Hanover, Germany. Baumgarten’s father Selig, mother Winzee [sic] and their seven children immigrated to the United States, settling in Baltimore, Maryland in 1852.
Henry Hayden, Sr. (1872-1934) was a contemporary of Baumgarten and Van Ness and was Charlotte’s first known black photographer. The son of David and Mary Hayden, he grew up in Charlotte and opened a studio in 1897 at 303 South Brevard Street.
Charlotte native William Morse was born on September 27, 1868. He was the son of Richard Morse who owned a marble yard at 210 South Tryon Street. Over the years, William Morse operated his studio with two partners, W. Carson Davis (1909-1910) and William Thomas Lindsay in 1918.
Verdie Lee Perrell was born in Guilford County, North Carolina in 1902. He was affiliated with The Gallagher Commercial Studio from 1922-1925. From there he partnered with W. Marvin Dunaway and formed Dunaway and Perrell Detective Agency and Commpercial Photography in 1926.
Another Charlotte, photography mystery lies in the identity of the owner of the Stertzbach Studio on West Fifth Street. There is no mention of this person in any Charlotte City directory.
Baumgarten’s sole competitor for a number of years was James H. Van Ness. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 17, 1841. Educated at a private school, Waugh and Majors, Van Ness graduated in 1858, and began working at his father’s grocery store until 1862.
Henry G. Oliver ran Peoples Photo Shop at 408 South Tryon Street. Although his advertisement appeared regularly in the Caduceus, Oliver, himself, only appears in the 1921 Charlotte City Directory. (1)
Advertisement from The Caduceus, December 14, 1918, p. 11.
Edward F. Gallagher (1888-1943) first appears in the Charlotte City directory in 1909. (1) A native of Kentucky, he was a first generation Irish-American.
Leonard Cooper Cooke was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1877. He first appeared in Charlotte in 1915. His studio was first located in his home at 324 North Tryon Street (1) Cooke later would open a studio at 1702 E. 4th Street, where he remained until his retirement in 1946.
Alton Wells Franklin was born in Chesterfield, Virginia in 1878. While living in Petersburg, Virginia, he met and married his first wife, Claudia B. Willis. Around 1908, Franklin became an itinerant partner with a Mr.
Readman first appears in the Charlotte directory around 1899. ( 1) Born in New York in April of 1851, his father was from England and his mother was a New Yorker. Readman dabbled in the theatrical business and worked in newspapers in California. He arrived in Charlotte in 1896.
Leon Ernest Seay was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1862. He began work as a photographer sometime in the 1890s. Seay came to Charlotte in 1906 and formed a partnership with Charles W. Eutsler. Together they ran a studio from Eutsler’s home at 21 North Tryon Street until 1910.
There are certain terms used throughout this website that refer to photographic formats no longer in use. Definitions of some of them are given below:
John S. Broadaway was an itinerant photographer who came to Charlotte in 1865. His temporary studio was above the Charlotte Bank. An advertisement from The Western Democrat indicates that his “traveling” studio “Gem Photograph” would be in town for a few days.
The Carolina Room probably has one of the largest collections of John and Mary E. Moon photographs.
James E. Hemphill worked in Charlotte from 1917 to 1959. Besides Henry Hayden, he is the only known black photographer in Charlotte prior to 1925. He was born in Blackstock, South Carolina in 1886. Hemphill was the son of James and Frances Hemphill.