Details
Title Rehn, Isaac
Date 1815-September 1883
Description Isaac Rehn, the Philadelphia photographer born in York, Pennsylvania in 1815, also worked as a photolithographer in the city ca. 1861-ca. 1883. Born of the Quaker faith, Rehn entered the field of photography by 1849 when he was listed as a "photographist" in city directories. In the 1850s he received a patent for an ambrotype process with partner James Cutting of Boston (1854) and began to experiment with the photolithographic process. In 1858 a collection of his photolithographs was noted in the "American Journal of Photography and the Allied Arts and Sciences" and he issued a series of stereographs of European views in this medium through the American Stereoscopic Co. (i.e., Langenheim, Lloyd & Co.) ca. 1859-60. In 1861 he began to be listed in city directories as a photolithographer and in 1873 was in partnership with Alfred Dickes (Rehn & Dickes) in this field at 125 South Fourth Street. Although Rehn died in 1883, his experiments with transfer paper are cited in a December 1884 article about photolithography in "The Photographic News."
Rehn was also a noted and devoted spiritualist who often lectured about the subject and served as the leader of the Harmonial Association of Philadelphia, as well as "The Penetralium," an investigative group of scientifically-minded spiritualists. His pursuit of scientific inquiry also led to his patenting of improvements to photography, photolithography, and fine art printing as well as displays at the Exhibitions of Manufacturers at the Franklin Institute. He was also an innovator in microphotography, a labor organizer, the recipient of a $500,000 contract to reproduce Patent Office Drawings in 1860, and a member of the faculty of Pennsylvania Medical University (1874-1876).
According to censuses, Isaac Rehn lived in Center City (Ward 9) with his wife Abigail (1818-1894) and several children, including photographer William (b. ca. 1842) in 1860 and in Washington, D.C. in 1870. His personal estate had increased from $1000 to $5000 during this decade. By 1871 he returned to Philadelphia and resided at 1321 North Seventh Street before returning to York, Pa. in the late 1870s where he died in September 1883.
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Census 1860, 1870
Groce & Wallace, 529
"Isaac Rehn's "Everlasting" Images," http://spirithistory.iapsop.com/isaac_rehns_everlasting_images.html (accessed January 5, 2015)
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
Philadelphia Business and City Directories, 1861-1873 (intermittently)
WWWAA, 2730