Edward Bierstadt (September 11, 1824 – June 15, 1906) was a

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

s and

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

s as well as an engraver in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Early life

Bierstadt was born in

Solingen Solingen (; li, Solich) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located some 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and, with a 2009 population of 161,366, ...

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

on September 11, 1824. He was the son of Henry Bierstadt (1785–1866), a

cooper Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to: * Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels Arts and entertainment * Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads * Cooper (video game character), in ...

, and Christiana (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Tilmans) Bierstadt (1792–1864). His younger brother was noted painter

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was no ...

. As a boy, his family moved to the United States and they settled in

New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. Up throug ...

Career

In 1860, he opened his own studio in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

along with his brother, Albert Bierstadt, whose artwork he made into

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

s. He produced stereoscopic images for Bierstadt Brothers, together with his other older brother

Charles Bierstadt Charles Bierstadt (1819–1903) was an American photographer who specialized in stereoscopic views. Biography Bierstadt was born at Solingen, Prussia, November 28, 1819, a son of Henry Bierstadt. He was the older brother of the landscape painte ...

. Bierstadt was hired by

William West Durant William West Durant (1850–1934) was a designer and developer of camps in the Adirondack Great Camp style, including Camp Uncas, Camp Pine Knot and Great Camp Sagamore which are National Historic Landmarks. He was the son of Thomas C. ...

to take a series of photos for an advertising brochure entitled ''The Adirondacks, Artotype Views Among the Mountains and Lakes of the North Woods'' to publicize

Blue Mountain Lake Blue Mountain Lake may refer to: * Blue Mountain Lake (Arkansas), a reservoir in Arkansas * Blue Mountain Lake (New York lake), a lake in Hamilton County in the central Adirondacks, New York * Blue Mountain Lake (hamlet), New York, a hamlet in the T ...

and

Raquette Lake Raquette Lake is the source of the Raquette River in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. It is near the community of Raquette Lake, New York. The lake has of shoreline with pines and mountains bordering the lake. It is located in the t ...

in the

Adirondacks The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular d ...

. Bierstadt held an 1876 patent for an improvement to the

stereoscope A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image. A typical stereoscope provides each eye with a lens that makes the ima ...

. Along with his brother, he produced some stereoscopic photographs from across the country, sometimes credited as the "Bierstadt Brothers". Bierstadt died in

on June 15, 1906.

References

External links

*
Saint Hubert's Isle - Photographs by Edward Bierstadt Internet Archive: Bierstadt, Edward. ''Picturesque St. Augustine, Views in the Old Florida City'', New York: The Artotype Publishing Company, 1891.
1824 births 1906 deaths Prussian emigrants to the United States 19th-century American photographers 19th-century American inventors American engravers People from New Bedford, Massachusetts Photographers from Massachusetts Photographers from New York City {{US-photographer-stub