Photography: A Shared Connection with my 2nd Great Grandfather

 

    By the age of eighteen, George Washington Knight moved out of his father’s home with hopes of a different life.[i] It must have been the unprecedented economic transformation and industrial growth in America that fueled George’s ambitions. Beginning in 1870, the camera design was evolving and the changing method to produce images started the movement that made photography available to the general public.[ii] George along with a partner, surname Robertson, ventured into the photography business. They placed several photography advertisements that ran from 1 October 1872 through on 19 November 1872 in the The Democrat newspaper for services in Grove Hill, Clarke County, Alabama (a neighboring county about 24 miles from George’s childhood home).[iii] As described in their advertisement, the ferrotype process resulted in an underexposed image that could be taken and developed in minutes.[iv] Until this time, early cameras required exposures of several minutes to half an hour.  Patrons would need to choose a pose they could hold for that length of time; no wonder no one is smiling in early photographs! Who could hold a smile for thirty minutes? George and his partner would likely setup quickly and produce a product in a short period of time allowing them the mobility to move from location to location with ease. I was overjoyed to find these articles and know that we share a photography connection. He called himself a "Photographist" and I call myself an "Amateur Photographer." Research project list:  locate photographs taken by Robertson & Knight; likely a long shot, but who knows what is waiting to be found.

 

---

[i] 1870 Federal Census, Marengo County, Alabama, Page 64; online database with images, Ancestry.com, (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4257605_00606?pId=13199942 : accessed 22 January 2024). Entries for William C Knight family, lines 7-13, George Washington Knight’s father.

[ii] Gaylord, Chris (2011, November 18). Louis Daguerre: Why people never smile in old photographs. The Christian Science Monitor. (https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Horizons/2011/1118/Louis-Daguerre-Why-people-never-smile-in-old-photographs#:~:text=Grinning%20exercises%20far%20too%20many,for%20the%20image%20to%20work. : accessed 24 January 2024).

[iii] Robertson & Knight. (1872, October 8). Photographists, Grove Hill, Alabama. The Democrat, XVII(19). 2.

[iv] Harding, Colin. (2013, May 25). How to Spot a Ferrotype, Also Known as a Tintype (1855-1940). Science + Media Museum. (https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/find-out-when-a-photo-was-taken-identify-ferrotype-tintype/ : accessed 22 January 2024).