Gabriel Harrison (March 25, 1818 – December 15, 1902) was an American photographer, actor, playwright, painter, and writer active in
New York City.
Early life
Harrison was born in
Philadelphia on March 25, 1818 to an engraver father. He moved to
New York City with his family at age six and made his theatrical debut in 1838 as the title character in
Shakespeare's ''
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
'' opposite
Lester Wallack.
Career
Harrison began his photography career in the gallery of
John Plumbe around 1844, and worked for
Martin M. Lawrence
Martin M. Lawrence (1808–1859) was an American daguerreotypist active in New York City. A contemporary of Mathew Brady and Jeremiah Gurney, Lawrence was known for his large daguerreotypes known as "mammoths" and allegorical subjects.{{cite book, ...
from 1847 to 1851. He moved to
Brooklyn in 1851, opened his own gallery in Brooklyn in 1852, and remained in photography until the early 1860s. His notable photographs include a
daguerreotype
Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process.
Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...
of
Walt Whitman that was used as the engravement for the title page of ''
Leaves of Grass'', ''The Infant Savior bearing the cross'' (ca. 1850), and ''California News'', a daguerreotype noted for its staged narrative rather than being a simple portrait.
His written works include a dramatization of Hawthorne's ''
The Scarlet Letter'' and biographies of actors
John Howard Payne and
Edwin Forrest.
Harrison supported free art schools in connection with the Brooklyn Academy of Design, which he co-founded, and was also a portrait and landscape painter.
Death
Harrison died in
Brooklyn at age 84. His children include daughters Viola and Beatrice and son George Washington Harrison.
Works
Walt Whitman, steel engraving, July 1854.jpg, Steel engraving of Walt Whitman by Samuel Hollyer, after a lost daguerreotype by Harrison
Edwin Forrest as Metamora, by Gabriel Harrison.jpg, Edwin Forrest as Metamora
Plays:
*''
The Scarlet Letter'' (1876)
Books:
*''The Life and Writings of John Howard Payne'' (1875)
*''A History of the Progress of the Drama, Music and the Fine Arts in the City of Brooklyn'' (1884)
*''Edwin Forrest: The Actor and the Man'' (1889)
References
*
External links
*
*
1818 births
1902 deaths
19th-century American male actors
19th-century American photographers
American male stage actors
Artists from Brooklyn
Male actors from New York City
Photographers from New York City
Photographers from Philadelphia
{{NewYork-bio-stub