Sunday, February 8, 2009

a black history in photography: the goodridge brothers

the goodridge brothers

Goodridge brothers (Glenalvin J. (1829-67), Wallace L. (1840-1922), and William O., (1846-90)), African-American photographers born in  York, Pennsylvania. The success of their entrepreneur parents, Evalina and William,  a mulatto descendant of Charles Carroll, enabled Glenalvin to open a daguerreotype galley in York in 1847. Thanks to the influence of Joseph Rinhart and Montgomery Simons, Glenalvin achieved a regional reputation of prizewinning ambrotypes. However, an extortion scheme falsely accusing him of sexual assault resulted in imprisonment and premature death. By 1865, Wallace and William had re-established the studio in Saginaw, Michigan. To the end of the century it stared in the success of the area's timber economy. The brothers were an effective team. Wallace managed the studio and specialized in portraiture. William, under contract to regional railways, travelled throughout Michigan recording the lumber boom with stereographs and larger views. In 1890 William died, only a year after the Department of Agriculture sent his lumber views to the Centennial Exhibition in Paris as part of its forestry display. Until Wallace's death in 1922, the studio remained the most important African American establishment in photography's early history. 

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