Anthony, Edward (1819-88) and Henry T. (d. 1884), American photographic entrepreneurs. Edward graduated as a civil engineer from Columbia University in 1838, but by 1842 had learned the daguerreotype process from Samuel Morse and opened his first ‘daguerrean studio’ in New York. He used both his engineering and photographic skills when he worked on the border survey between Maine and Canada that resulted in the Webster-Ashburn Treaty of 1842. He had retired from active daguerreotyping by 1847, and thereafter was involved exclusively with the sale of photographic apparatus, supplies, and images. In 1847 he met Henry Talbot to explore the idea of acting as the latter's agent for the calotype patent in America, but the deal never materialized. During the Civil War, Edward Anthony was the largest publisher of images by Mathew Brady and other prominent photographers. The partnership he eventually formed with his elder brother Henry became the largest photographic supplier in America, offering all the materials needed to build and operate a studio. The business continued after the brothers' deaths, and in 1902 merged with its largest competitor, the Scovill Manufacturing Co., and became Ansco.
— <auth />
Bibliography
- Marder, W. E., Anthony: The Man, the Company, the Cameras (1982)
