Henry Fitz Jr.
Henry Fitz
Fitz, circa 1840-42 daguerreotype
Born(1808-12-31)31 December 1808
Died7 November 1863(1863-11-07) (aged 54)
Resting placeNew York City, USA
Occupationbusinessman
Known formanufacturer of telescopes, early photography
Spouse
Julia Ann Wells
(m. 1844)

Henry Fitz Jr. (December 31, 1808 - November 7, 1863) was an American engineer, scientist, locksmith, optician, inventor and a pioneer of photography in the United States.

Personal life

Fitz was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on December 31, 1808.[1] He married Julia Ann Wells of Southold, Long Island in June 1844.[2]

 1878 College Observatory
Maria Mitchell in Vassar College Observatory June 1878 using a telescope made by Fitz[3]
1850 advertisement
Henry Fitz 1850 shop advertisement
Fitz workshop reconstructed at Smithsonian Institution
Henry Fitz's workshop reconstructed at Smithsonian Institution at their Museum of American History

Career and death

After returning from a trip in Europe in December 1839, he entered partnership with Alexander Wolcott and John Johnson to solve the problem of making daguerreotype portraits. Johnson fell ill, however, and work only resumed in January 1840. These experiments led Wolcott to patent a special mirror camera.

Wolcott and Johnson opened the first photo studio in the world in March 1840. Fitz opened his own daguerreotype studio in Baltimore in June 1840. A group of daguerreotypes, from the early experimentation with Wolcott and Johnson as well as later studio portraits, were discovered and sold at auction in 2021.[4]

Fitz’s telescope business was highly profitable, so in 1863, he started construction of a new house. However, he died suddenly on November 7, 1863.[5] Obituaries report that his demise was from tuberculosis.[6] Before his final illness, he was about to sail for Europe to select a glass for a 24-inch (610 mm) telescope and to procure patents for a camera involving a new form of lens.[7]

References

  1. "1860s telescope by Fitz still in use". The Akron Beacon Journal. Akron, Ohio. June 12, 1985. p. 32. Archived from the original on July 17, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021 via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
  2. United States National Museum 1962, p. 168.
  3. Smithsonian Institution 2019, p. 57.
  4. Hindman (2021). "The Henry Fitz Jr. Archive of Photographic History". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. "Obituary / Death of Henry Fitz". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. November 13, 1863. p. 2. Archived from the original on July 17, 2021. Retrieved April 12, 2021 via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
  6. Fried, Bart (2019). "The Cryptic Case of Jacob Cambell's Clark Refractor". Telescopes & Reflectors. Amateur Astronomers Association of New York. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  7. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Fitz, Henry" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.

Sources

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