Details
Title Kuchel, Charles Conrad
Date 1820-December 20, 1864
Description Charles Conrad Kuchel, the noted California lithographer born in Zweibrücken, Switzerland in 1820, worked in the trade in Philadelphia ca. 1840-ca. 1853. By 1840 Kuchel worked in the local trade as a lithographic artist from a studio at 19 Cherry Street where he delineated a portrait of Washington printed in cooperation with Frederick Kuhl (24 Vine Street). In 1845 city directories list Kuchel at Kuhl's establishment at 46 1/2 Walnut Street. A year later, he was naturalized, applied for a passport in Philadelphia, and entered into a partnership with William C. Alden in Hartford, Ct. Although the business did not last beyond 1846, Kuchel continued to work with Alden until about 1849 before he returned to work in Philadelphia about 1851 at P. S. Duval & Co.. He remained at the Duval establishment where he lithographed cityscape views, including "Commissioners Hall, Spring Garden" (1851), book illustrations, surgical plates, and non-Philadelphia views until about 1853.
Shortly thereafter, he relocated to San Francisco and entered into Kuchel & Dresel, a partnership with Emil Dresel that specialized in views of California mining camps and towns. He also acted as mentor to Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918), a Pennsylvania-born, black artist who later operated his own lithographic studio in San Francisco. Kuchel & Dresel dissolved in 1859 and Kuchel continued in the trade, including the partnership Nagel, Fishbourne & Kuchel (1862) in San Francisco until his death on December 20, 1864.
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
References See Duval, P. S. and Kuhl, Frederick.
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Finlay, Picturing Victorian America (2009), 15
Groce & Wallace, 377
Hart, A Companion to California (1987), 63
Last, 258
Merrill, 146-147
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s
Philadelphia Business and City Directories
Reps, Views and Viewmakers, 187
U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925
WWWAA, 1911, 1912