Tag: by Rees (Charles R.)

Wikipedia says: Charles Richard Rees (January 1860 – 1914) was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania to German immigrants Bernard and Sarah Rees. Charles started his career as a daguerreotypist in Cincinnati around 1850. In 1851, Charles and his brother Edwin opened a studio in Richmond, Virginia near the Capitol. By 1853, Charles had relocated to the former studio of Harrison and Holmes at 289 Broadway, NYC, in what was then the new photographic industry’s epicenter. Lower Manhattan contained the studios of some of the best photographers in the business, such as Henry Ulke, Mathew Brady, Jeremiah Gurney, Edward Anthony and Abraham Bogardus. Competition was fierce so “Professor” Rees passed himself off as a European political refugee with an innovative “German method of picture making.” This method employed a division of labor in which all the process’ steps were done by a so-called “expert.” To compete, Charles cut his prices on portraits to twenty-five cents for a 1/9th plate and sixty-two cents with a case, a low price even by 1850 standards. After only a little more than two years in business, Charles moved from New York City. By 1859, 30 y.o. Charles, with his brother Edwin, returned to the soon-to-be capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia and again set up shop. They called their new studio “Rees’ Steam Gallery.” At the beginning of the Civil War, the influx of politicians and particularly soldiers meant a dramatic increase in business, and the brothers were kept busy with hundreds of new recruits flocking to their gallery. Caught up in the patriotic fervor of the time, Charles soon joined the 19th Virginia Militia, a regiment made up of shopkeepers, railroad workers and local firemen, who were used primarily as prison guards, but who were also used in extreme emergencies. As the war progressed, acute shortages of everything was the norm and most retail shops in Richmond, including Rees’ studio, eventually closed down altogether. As Grant advanced on Petersburg on April 3, 1863, Richmond was evacuated. General Ewell ordered Richmond’s warehouses put to the torch. The fires soon got out of control and engulfed the entire business district, including the Rees Brothers’ studio. However, almost as soon as the fires were put out rebuilding soon began and Rees was back in business at a new studio named “Rees & Bro.” at 913 Main Street. Then, in 1880, for reasons not entirely clear Charles relocated his studio to Petersburg, Virginia, setting up shop at the J. E. Rockwell Gallery on Sycamore Street. Charles Rees passed away in 1914 at the age of 84 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery with his wife Minerva and sons Eddie and Charles Jr. The Rees studio would continue operating under his only surviving child, James Conway Rees. James lived until 1955 and was one of the few men left who might have remembered the Civil War and his father’s work during that conflict. With the coming of the Great Depression, the Rees Studio in Petersburg took its last photograph and closed its doors.