Brookline Photographers: The Early Years

In the early days of photography, Brookline people who wanted to have their picture taken traveled into Boston. For example, Mary Wild, in an 1856 entry in her diary, described going with her daughter Laura to have daguerreotypes taken at the studio of J.A. Whipple on Washington Street.

This advertisement for John A. Whipple's daguerreotypes was in the Boston Directory published in 1848, eight years before Mary Wild and her daughter had their pictures taken there. (Click image for larger view.)

By the 1870s, Boston photographers were advertising their services to Brookline's growing population in town directories. 

Cambridge photographers got in on the act as well. In 1887, H. William Tupper, "manager and photographer" at Pach's Studio near Harvard Square, advertised his services in the Brookline Blue Book, an annual directory, noting that his studio was "just a short ride in the horsecar" from Brookline.

Boston-area photographers also came to Brookline to take or to show pictures. The famed photographer J.W. Black -- he had taken photographs before the Civil War of John Brown and Walt Whitman as well as the first aerial photograph in the United States -- had come to town in 1872 to present a display of stereopticon images at Town Hall. 

In 1882, a photographer named F.J. Aiken had set up temporarily in town, offering to take photos of local people.

This notice appeared in the Brookline Chronicle on October 7, 1882. Seven weeks later, the paper noted that "The daguerreotype saloon on High street has been pronounced a nuisance and its removal ordered." This was presumably Aiken's operation, though there is no further information available.

First Brookline Photo Studio

Finally, in May 1888 a short item in the Brookline Chronicle announced that the town would soon have its own photo studio.

"Mr. W.H. Partridge, the well known photographer...will soon erect a studio on Harvard street opposite the Baptist church. Mr. Partridge is one of the foremost artists in the country and he will doubtless be liberally patronized by the residents of this town."

Partridge's studio on Harvard Street is highlighted on this portion of an 1893 map

William H. Partridge was born in Virginia in 1858, in a part of the state that became West Virginia during the Civil War.  The family moved to Massachusetts, where William's father, Asa, became a photographer. (He is one of the Boston photographers whose 1870s advertisements in Brookline are shown above)

William, with his older brother Edward and later on his own, continued in the photo business in Boston after their father moved to California. "Mr. Partridge's work stands second to none in the country," wrote the Chronicle in September, noting that the studio

"is supplied with the best apparatus and a large variety of desirable accessories. Every kind of photographic work will be artistically executed, from the smallest locket picture to a life-size portrait. If desired, pictures will be taken at residences."

Partridge ad in the 1889 Brookline directory

Partridge hired others to manage the Brookline branch of his business, starting with a woman named A.E. Perkins who, according to the Chronicle, "has had an extended experience with leading photographers in Massachusetts, and has been very successful with children's pictures."

Enter A.T. Barraud

In 1890, Partridge hired a Canadian landscape and marine painter and photographer named Alfred Thomas Barraud to manage the Brookline studio. (Barraud's father, Francis, was an English painter best known for the 1898 painting His Master's Voice which was used as the longtime symbol of the Victor Talking Machine Company, later RCA Victor.) 

A.T. Barraud would remain in charge of the Brookline studio for more than 30 years, until his death in 1925. 

Alfred and Catherine Barraud, Boston Globe, July 25, 1922

The April 1906 issue of Wilson's Photographic Magazine featured six photos of children taken by Barraud at the Partridge studio in Brookline. (Two of the photos are below. See larger versions of all of the photos here.)

The 1880s were also a significant decade for the growth of amateur photography in Brookline (and elsewhere). That aspect of local photographic history will be the subject of my next post.