J.H. Whitley
1860s (mid)
John Harrison Whitley (1830–1896) with one of his cameras

Carte de visite
Private collection of Ron Coddington
(Ron Coddington, 13 December 2025) A bewhiskered, mustached man stands with one hand resting on the back of a camera and the other holding the lens cap open. Though he is not identified, the imprint on the back of the card-stock mount of this carte de visite—J.H. Whitley & Co. of Dunn’s Block in Elmira, N.Y.—suggests he is the owner of the gallery, John Harrison Whitley (1830–1896).
 
Born in Tioga County, N.Y., Whitley learned his craft and began his career as early as 1858, according to Cabinet Card Photography: "He was a photographer in Oswego, New York, from 1858 through 1861. His next position was working with photographer C.C. Doty in Elmira, New York. After a short time he left his employ to work for the Erie Railroad car shop in Elmira. When the shop was destroyed by fire, he returned to photography and worked with Elmira photographer A.P. Hart. By 1864, Whitley had opened his own photography gallery in Elmira."
 
Whitley appears in the Elmira’s 1863 business directory as an “artist.”
 
By mid-1864, Whitley advertised his “New Photograph Gallery” at Dunn’s Block, featuring “new Apparatus and New Materials” in rooms that “have been fitted up at a great expense.” This portrait may date to this period of Whitley’s career—the new photographer in town establishing himself and his business.
 
Though examples of his portraiture from the Civil War period survive, no known views of the prisoner-of-war camp at Elmira have yet surfaced.
 
In 1866, the city’s business directory and newspaper ads identify him as the operator of Miss E.T. Dunn’s Photographic Gallery. She was Eliza Thompson Dunn (about 1838–1924). Evidence suggests her partnership with Whitley was short-lived: her obituary mentions only prior employment with Elmira’s post and revenue service offices. By 1867, a newspaper ad indicates Whitley had reestablished his independence. He continued to practice until his death from stomach cancer in 1896 at about age 65. His obituary notes: “Nearly every citizen of Elmira knew Mr. Whitley, who had been engaged in the photographer’s business for the past thirty-five years, and who was respected for his many good qualities by all with whom he enjoyed an acquaintance.”
 
LL/131509