View of the south side of Chestnut Street between 6th and 7th Streets showing the daguerreotype studio of McClees & Germon at 160 Chestnut Street. Neighboring tenants include Howell & Brothers, paper hangings (156 Chestnut); Charles Oakford, hats (158 Chestnut); James H. Orne, carpets (160 Chestnut); and the adjoining businesses of Jones Hotel and J.C. Smith, piano fortes and J. Couenhoven, music store (162 Chestnut). Also shows horse-drawn wagons parked in the foreground. The partnership between James E. McClees and Washington Lafayette Germon lasted from 1846 to 1855, and was located at this address from 1854 until a fire destroyed the studio on March 15, 1855., McClees 1855-10., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of views of Philadelphia., Reproduced in The Print and Photograph Department of the Library Company of Philadelphia's Center City Philadelphia in the 19th century (Portsmouth, N.H.: Arcadia Publishing, 2006), p. 56., Arcadia caption text: Photographer James McClees captured this view of the south side of the 600 block of Chestnut Street showing the studio he shared with Washington Lafayette Germon shortly before the building was destroyed by fire in March 1855. At the time, Philadelphia, a leading center of American photography, supported more than 120 photographers. Although signage on the building advertised the men as daguerreotypists, by the mid 1850s McClees was also producing some of the earliest photographic views of Philadelphia printed on paper., McClees, a prominent Philadelphia photographer and daguerreotypist, produced some of the earliest paper photographic views of Philadelphia between 1853 and 1859.
Creator
M'Clees, Jas. E. (James E.), photographer
Date
ca. 1855
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - McClees - Businesses [(7)1322.F.57d]
