Frederick Gutekunst Portrait Ledger Books, early 1860s-1875. (Purchased in part with funds from the Program in Early American Economy and Society)
The Library Company recently acquired rare ledger books from the studio of Philadelphia photographer Frederick Gutekunst. Gutekunst’s photographic career spanned more than 60 years, beginning in 1856 and ending only upon his death in 1917. During these years he secured a reputation as one of the city’s leading photographers. He served as one of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s official photographers, documented many of Philadelphia’s important buildings, and printed the famous ten-foot long panorama of the Centennial Exposition, a widely admired technical feat. The Library Company owns hundreds of Gutekunst photographs and we continue to add his work to our collection.
Gutekunst’s fame rested primarily in the area of portraiture. Actors, authors, former and future American presidents, foreign dignitaries, clergy members, and ordinary Philadelphians all posed for portraits in Gutekunst’s studio. Our newly acquired ledgers record the names of the famous and not so famous who came through Gutekunst’s studio. Although the ledgers are not complete for each year, their approximately 350 pages cover photographic work from 1863 through 1875 and list each sitter’s name and a negative number. Using the negative number information, we have made tentative identifications of a few of our previously unidentified Gutekunst portraits. The two cartes-de-visite shown here, for example, are probably Annette Steinbrenner and her daughter Mary, listed in these ledgers as sitting for Gutekunst in the early 1860s.
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Some entries in the ledgers contain information beyond a name and a negative number. During the Civil War years, the sitter’s military rank was recorded. Gutekunst, a member of the Melita Lodge in Philadelphia, noted when his sitters were fellow Masons. Sometimes additional information pertained to ordering photographic copies. Notes, for example, instructed employees to accept no orders for additional prints from Thomas Shipley’s July 16, 1873 sitting “except by Mr. Shipley.” Mr. Shipley may have wanted to restrict access to his portrait, but a Dr. Miller apparently planned a wide distribution of his portrait, ordering both cabinet cards and the smaller cartes-de-visite size from his photographic session.
Careful study of Gutekunst’s ledger books will undoubtedly yield valuable information about one of 19th century America’s leading photographers and his clientele. Rarely does this type of artifact survive, and the Library Company is fortunate to have had the opportunity to make this purchase.