Benjamin West Kilburn (December 10, 1827 – January 15, 1909) was an American photographer and stereoscopic view publisher famous for his landscape images of the nascent American and Canadian state, provincial, and national parks and his visual record of the great migrations at the end of the nineteenth century. Kilburn was a legislator in the

New Hampshire General Court The General Court of New Hampshire is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The lower house is the New Hampshire House of Representatives with 400 members. The upper house is the New Hampshire Senate with 24 mem ...

. A patent was granted for his gun-style camera.

Early life

The son of Josiah Kilburn, an iron founder who manufactured Franconia stoves, Benjamin received his education as a machinist in

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

, at age 16. After four years, Benjamin returned to

Littleton, New Hampshire Littleton is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,005 at the 2020 census. Situated at the northern edge of the White Mountains, Littleton is bounded on the northwest by the Connecticut River. The main vil ...

, to become a partner with his father in the Josiah Kilburn & Son foundry. Kilburn was a sergeant in Company D, 13th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, and participated with his unit in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia. A mountaineer, Kilburn was active on

Mount Washington Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934 ...

in New Hampshire; in

Ouray, Colorado Ouray () is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Ouray County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 1,000 as of the 2010 census. The Ouray Post Office has the ZIP Code 81427. Located at an elevation of , Ouray's cl ...

; and in the Sierra Nevada of California, including Yosemite in 1872.

Photography

Kilburn Brothers stereoviews date from about 1865. Published sources attribute their stereographs (stereo-photographs) before 1876 solely to Benjamin. His brother, Edward Kilburn (February 27, 1830 – 1884), however, learned the art of photography from a local daguerreotypist, Ora C. Bolton, from neighboring

Waterford, Vermont Waterford is a town in Caledonia County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,268 at the 2020 census. History The town was formed by the Vermont charter on November 8, 1780, and was originally called Littleton, but the name was chang ...

at an earlier date. Photographer O. C. Bolton also taugh
Franklin G. Weller
of

. Weller became a notable stereo-photographer who would introduce comic views of a special local color and pioneer a popular line which appeared in later Kilburn subject categories. Bolton was connected with another early stereo-photographer, Franklin L. White of

Lancaster, New Hampshire Lancaster is a town located along the Connecticut River in Coös County, New Hampshire, United States. The town is named after the city of Lancaster in England. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 3,218, the second largest in the coun ...

, who published a view list of glass stereographs in 1859. Early period Kilburn stereoviews were sold by Joseph L. Bates, a retail outlet which specialized in Oliver Wendell Holmes stereo-viewers at his location on Washington Street,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. A Kilburn-Bates stereoview catalog was published about 1867. The Kilburn list reflected choices similar to those of Franklin L. White. Bates commercial support gave Kilburn Brothers their first significant push in the marketplace.

Kilburn Brothers and B. W. Kilburn Co.

Their first stereoscopic views were produced in Edward Kilburn's studio in the McCoy Block in Littleton. The location proved to be too small for their popularity. The business remained family-centered and was largely focused on local subjects and talent. Benjamin's daughter Elizabeth and her husband William Jackson were employees who helped to develop the quality product associated with Kilburn views. By 1868, a second larger viewshop was built at the Chutter Block location on Main Street. After the , a new factory was built on Cottage Street with more room to expand. Both of these larger viewshops were but one block from the Littleton railroad station. Young salesmen carried Kilburn views onto the trains and south to an ever-expanding audience. Today the site of the third viewshop is a state historic landmark. They quickly became the world's most extensive manufacturer of stereoscopic views. Edward Kilburn retired from the partnership about 1877, although the product continued to be identified as Kilburn Brothers until the late 1880s. John P. Soule, a famous stereo-photographer from Washington Street in Boston, was closely associated with the Kilburn Brothers. A significant number of his negatives were shipped to the Kilburn business of Littleton in 1881. Benjamin was active in the National Photographic Association. The new B. W. Kilburn & Company brought many changes in stereoscopic technology and audience. By 1890, Benjamin's second son-in-law, the attorney Daniel Clark Remich, had joined the board of the firm, as well as James M. Davis, agent for a growing army of door-to-door salesmen. Davis would in later years direct the day-to-day decisions of the firm. As general manager, located first in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

and later in New York and

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, he used his cable address "Artistic" to direct production, send photographers to distant lands, and hire a sales force to distribute the views. The Columbian Exposition at

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1893 became the high-water mark for their business as they acquired exclusive rights to sell stereoscopic views of the World's Fair. The business was succeeded by several of its former salesmen and competitors including: W. F. Burns & Co. of St. Louis in 1910;

Underwood & Underwood Underwood & Underwood was an early producer and distributor of stereoscopic and other photographic images, and later was a pioneer in the field of news bureau photography. History The company was founded in 1881 in Ottawa, Kansas, by two brothers ...

brothers of New York; B. L. Singley of the

Keystone View Company The Keystone View Company was a major distributor of stereographic images, and was located in Meadville, Pennsylvania. From 1892 through 1963 Keystone produced and distributed both educational and comic/sentimental stereoviews, and stereoscopes. B ...

; and others.

Legacy

Benjamin W. Kilburn is remembered both as a visual historian of

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

and international

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

and as the world's most extensive manufacturer of stereoscopic views from 1865 to 1910. He became a pioneer of photojournalism documenting the presidential inauguration of Grover Cleveland, the

Johnstown Flood The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on Friday, May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylv ...

in Pennsylvania, the Boer War, the Boxer Rebellion, and the Spanish–American War, among other events. He also is credited with invention of a photo gun camera, which was manufactured by Scovill Mfg. Co. from 1882 to 1886, to circumvent the tripod usage while taking pictures among the White Mountains, New Hampshire. Civic-minded citizen,

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

veteran and supporter of the

Grand Army of the Republic The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Il ...

, he developed an early fire-fighting apparatus, and was involved in search and rescue on

. Several articles relating to the life of Benjamin W. Kilburn and a photo portrait by his niece Addie Kilburn Robinson.

References

External links