Henry Ulke (January 29, 1821 – February 17, 1910) was an American photographer and portrait painter.
Biography
Henry Ulke was born in
Frankenstein in Schlesien,
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 ...
,
and studied painting in
Breslau, and also in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
under
Wach
WACH (channel 57) is a television station in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Pickens Street in downtown Columbia, and its transmitter i ...
. For a time he was occupied in decorating the Royal Museum of Berlin, but became involved in the
Revolution of 1848
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...
, and was compelled to leave his native land.
Ulke and his brothers Julian and Lee moved from Germany to the United States in 1852. Ulke worked in New York designing banknotes, then illustrations for
Harper's and
Leslie's weeklies in Philadelphia from approximately 1853 to 1860. They settled in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, in 1860, finding residence in the
Petersen boarding house at 516 Tenth Street, NW, across the street from
Ford's Theater
Ford's Theatre is a theater located in Washington, D.C., which opened in August 1863. The theater is infamous for being the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the theater box ...
, where President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
was shot by
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth th ...
on April 14, 1865. It is presumed that Julian Ulke took a famous photo of the Petersen house room in which Lincoln died on the morning of April 15.
The brothers had a portrait studio in Washington, D.C. at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., around the corner from their boarding house. For 40 years, Ulke painted portraits of a series of American politicians, scientists and noteworthy individuals — some from his own photos. Portraits include Earls Elgin and Gray, Sir Frederick Bruce,
Robert Kennicott
Robert Kennicott (November 13, 1835 – May 13, 1866) was an American naturalist and herpetologist. Chronic illness kept Kennicott out of school as a child. Instead, Kennicott spent most of his time outdoors, collecting plants and animals. Hi ...
,
William Stimpson
William Stimpson (February 14, 1832 – May 26, 1872) was a noted American scientist. He was interested particularly in marine biology. Stimpson became an important early contributor to the work of the Smithsonian Institution and later, direc ...
,
Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin McMasters Stanton (December 19, 1814December 24, 1869) was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize ...
,
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...
,
James G. Blaine, Treasury Secretaries
Crawford
Crawford may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crawford Bay Airport, British Columbia
* Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Ontario
United Kingdom
* Crawford, Lancashire, a small village near Rainford, Merseyside, England
* Crawford, South Lanarkshire, a ...
,
Taney,
Bibb
Bibb may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Bibb County, Alabama
* Fort Bibb, Alabama, constructed in 1818
* Bibb City, Georgia, in Muscogee County
* Bibb County, Georgia
People
* Bibb (surname)
* Bibb (given name)
Ships
* , a Revenue Mari ...
,
Chase
Chase or CHASE may refer to:
Businesses
* Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York
* Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company
* Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England
* Chase Co ...
, and
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...
, Generals Grant, Rawlins, and Blair, as well as
Samuel D. Ingham
Samuel Delucenna Ingham (September 16, 1779 – June 5, 1860) was a state legislator, judge, U.S. Representative and served as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Andrew Jackson.
Early life and education
Ingham was born near New Hope, Pe ...
(1893).
Ulke was a member of the Smithsonian
Megatherium Club
The Megatherium Club was founded by William Stimpson. It was a group of Washington, D.C.-based scientists who were attracted to that city by the Smithsonian Institution's rapidly growing collection, from 1857 to 1866.
Many of the members had no f ...
, and collected beetles.
[ His beetle collection has been called "one of the largest and most perfect collections of the beetles of North America in existence". He donated his collection to the Carnegie Museum.][ Ulke photographed Mary Lincoln in mourning after Willie Lincoln's death.
Ulke died in Washington, D.C. in 1910. His '']New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' obituary says, "Henry Ulke, whose portraits of Presidents and Cabinet Ministers at Washington gained for him the soubriquet of 'Painter of Presidents,' died ... as the result of a fall at his home... He was 89 years old. Mr. Ulke was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and at the time of the assassination the dying President was carried into the famous Tenth Street house, where he was boarding. One of Mr. Ulke's best paintings was a portrait of President Grant, which now hangs in the long gallery of the White House..." Ulke was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
Family
Ulke married Veronica Schultze in 1865.
Notes
References
*Andrew J. Cosentino and Henry H. Glassie. ''The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800–1915''. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1983.
* This source says he came to the United States in 1849.
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulke, Henry
American entomologists
1821 births
1910 deaths
Painters from Washington, D.C.
American people of German descent
German-American Forty-Eighters
People from Mittelsachsen
Accidental deaths from falls
Accidental deaths in Washington, D.C.
19th-century American painters
American male painters
20th-century American painters
19th-century American photographers
20th-century American photographers
19th-century American male artists
20th-century American male artists
Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)