| Title |
Goff, Joseph L. |
| Date |
b. ca. 1833 |
| Description |
Joseph L. Goff, born about 1833 in Newark, New Jersey, published engravings and lithographs in Philadelphia from the mid-1860s
to the mid-1870s. Before this time he owned a coach and sign painting business with John G. Rogers and lived on Juniper Street,
below Spruce Street, with his mother Martha Goff (b. ca. 1800), a shopkeeper, and brother, Richard W.P. Goff (b. ca. 1835).
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By June 1865, Joseph posted an advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer listing himself as a publisher and agent looking
for other agents to sell a deathbed picture of Lincoln. The city directory for this year lists "books" as his profession,
and by 1866; "engravings." Joseph's brother joined him in business in 1867 and formed Goff & Brother, an engraving and publishing
company at 31 South Sixth Street. Joseph remained at this address and was engaged in publishing a few years longer than his
brother Richard, who, around 1870, dealt in ornaments at 1307 Chestnut Street, and eventually founded an art furniture business.
After Richard's departure, city directories list "chromos" as Joseph's trade at 31 South Sixth Street until about 1875. In
the mid-1870s he was listed as a frame maker and a clerk, and by 1880, he was back in the publishing business. A few years
later, he managed J. H. Shaw's "Liberal Credit House," a furniture store at 1122 Market Street.
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By 1860 Goff resided iin Ward 26 with his wife Eliza J. (ca. 1836-1882) and three children, and then in Ward 7 by 1880. In
1893, a decade after his first wife's death, Joseph married Ella J. Long (d. 1909). They had one child together in 1894, and
six years later, Ella is listed as a widow in the 1900 census.
|
| Is part of |
Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers |
| Call number |
Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers |
| Bibliographic citation |
Census 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 |
|
Peters, 197 |
|
Philadelphia City Directories, 1856-1890 (intermittently) |
|
Philadelphia Inquirer June 17, 1865, December 18, 1882, and October 9, 1893 |
