Gabriel Harrison

Gabriel Harrison (March 25, 1818 – December 15, 1902) was an American photographer, actor, playwright, painter, and writer active in New York City.

Gabriel Harrison
Harrison c. 1851
Born(1818-03-25)March 25, 1818
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedDecember 15, 1902(1902-12-15) (aged 84)
Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Signature

Early life

Harrison was born in Philadelphia on March 25, 1818 to an engraver father. He moved to New York City with his family at age six and made his theatrical debut in 1838 as the title character in Shakespeare's Othello opposite Lester Wallack.[1]

Career

Harrison began his photography career in the gallery of John Plumbe around 1844, and worked for Martin M. Lawrence from 1847 to 1851. He moved to Brooklyn in 1851, opened his own gallery in Brooklyn in 1852, and remained in photography until the early 1860s. His notable photographs include a daguerreotype of Walt Whitman that was used as the engravement for the title page of Leaves of Grass,[2] The Infant Savior bearing the cross (ca. 1850), and California News, a daguerreotype noted for its staged narrative rather than being a simple portrait.[3]

His written works include a dramatization of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and biographies of actors John Howard Payne and Edwin Forrest.[4]

Harrison supported free art schools in connection with the Brooklyn Academy of Design, which he co-founded, and was also a portrait and landscape painter.[4]

Death

Harrison died in Brooklyn at age 84. His children include daughters Viola and Beatrice and son George Washington Harrison.[5][6][1]

Works
  • Steel engraving of Walt Whitman by Samuel Hollyer, after a lost daguerreotype by Harrison
    Steel engraving of Walt Whitman by Samuel Hollyer, after a lost daguerreotype by Harrison
  • Edwin Forrest as Metamora
    Edwin Forrest as Metamora

Plays:

Books:

  • The Life and Writings of John Howard Payne (1875)
  • A History of the Progress of the Drama, Music and the Fine Arts in the City of Brooklyn (1884)
  • Edwin Forrest: The Actor and the Man (1889)

References
  1. A Centennial Dramatic Offering: A Romantic Drama, in Four Acts, entitled The Scarlet Letter
  1. "Death of Gabriel Harrison". The Saint Paul Globe. January 11, 1903. p. 22.
  2. Bohan, Ruth L. (2006). Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art, 1850–1920. Penn State Press. pp. 15–. ISBN 978-0-271-04780-5.
  3. Rosenheim, Jeff L. (2000). ""A Palace for the Sun": Early Photography in New York City". In Voorsanger, Catherine Hoover; Howat, John K. (eds.). Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825-1861. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 234–. ISBN 978-0-87099-957-4.
  4. Frank Moore Colby; Talcott Williams (1918). "Harrison, Gabriel". The New International Encyclopaedia. Vol. 10 (2nd ed.). Dodd, Mead & Co. p. 728.
  5. West, Larry (2013). "Harrison, Gabriel (1818–1902)". In Hannavy, John (ed.). Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Routledge. pp. 634–635. ISBN 978-1-135-87327-1.
  6. "Gabriel Harrison". New-York Tribune. Dec 16, 1902. p. 9.
  • Romer, Grant (September 1979). "Gabriel Harrison: the Poetic Daguerrean". Image. 22 (3): 8–18. ISSN 0536-5465.
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