WThe New York Public Library  /  Photographers’ Identities Catalog
PIC ID: 2251

Edward Daniel Macfee Jr.

American, 1859-1930

Male

View raw data

Edward Daniel Macfee Jr. was born in Richmond, Virginia, but spent at least some of his youth in Rolling Hills, where it was reported that he shot himself in a hunting accident at age 14 (1873). He was a travelling book salesman based in Norcatur, in Kansas in the late 1880s. There, in September, 1889 he is first mentioned as a travelling photographer taking photos of residences and businesses. His ads offered photos of "your 'Sod Shanty on your Claim.'" By March of 1890 he had established a studio there, but was open only the first Friday and Saturday of each month, as he continued to travel to smaller towns with a photographic tent. Buildings, stock and machinery were his specialty, and he could take dark interiors with a magnesium flash. In 1891 he expanded his territory to include small towns in Nebraska. Local accounts in newspapers there indicate he was based in Norton, Kansas in a partnership as Marsh & Macfee. In May, he made pictures of President Harrison during a visit to Hastings. He advertised the photo under the heading of "The President Shot" and described himself as an "assassin, secreted on the portico of a hotel nearby" who "took deliberate aim at our Chief Magistrate, and shot him three times in rapid succession." In 1892 he was back in Norcatur full-time, and built an addition to his studio to add a framing department. He did the construction himself, prompting the newspaper to describe him as an "all-around hustler." Indeed, he was elected secretary of the local water works, established a band, and was active in a debate society, which he sometimes served as president. In September, 1893 he set out for Virginia in a wagon, but returned in October owing to unspecified business in need of his attention. It had perhaps to do with property in Oberlin, which was foreclosed on in February, 1894. At this time he was acting as lawyer in Oberlin, took up boxing, and opened a barber shop in Norcatur. An ad for his "Electric Barber Shop" shows an amusing scene with a client's head fed into a large mechanical box spewing clipped hair into a pile on the floor. In May he sold the barber shop to focus on his legal work. He may have had limited involvement in photography at this time, as advertsements for the gallery refer simply to the "Art Gallery" and do not include his name. The ads do still bear the familiar cartoon of him in a bowler hat and riding a ram which first appeared after his aborted trip to Virginia. In November he left Norcatur and was back working in photography, partnered with a Mrs. Forester in Wagoner, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). There he reportedly had occasion to photograph several notorious outlaws, including members of the Cook and Dalton gangs, and at least one of their murdered victims. He was in Wagoner through May, 1895 and was evidently in Arkansas and Virginia after that.He advertised in Baltimore, Maryland in October, 1897 "Copy-Right Pictures of the Winning Game of 1897, Boston vs. Baltimore, played before an audience of 30,000 people." Writing an account of the picture to the newspaper in Norcatur, he said he'd gone to Baltimore to buy a gramophone and encountered the event by accident. He suggested he was off to Boston where he expected to have better business for the photo.In January, 1898 he advertised a visit as a "flash light photographer" to Oxford, North Carolina. He made Oxford a home-base for itenerant work, and in April he advertised a return visit to Louisburg. Under the title of "War is Declared," his ad threatens to "take the city with his Camera and continue the bombardment in the upper story of the Neal Building until the 29th." By November, 1898 he was established in Raleigh. He had styled himself "Prof." Macfee, and gave demonstrations in which took a flash photograph of the audience, and later projected the image 20 feet square using the new Lumiere of Paris projector.In September, 1899 he was in Lynchburg, Virginia and, having been granted a patent on the design of a photograph wagon, prepared his for a trip to Niagara Falls. Along the way he was granted permission to make photographs from the roof of the US Capitol building of a parade featuring President McKinley and Admiral Dewey.In 1900 he was back in Rolling Hills, Virginia where he was granted a patent for a vehicle, either a wagon or rail car, whose body could telescope to variable lengths.His wherabouts are not found for the next several years, though he was possibly travelling in or around Viriginia. He is next found in Petersburg in 1905, partnered with Waldemar F. Ogden as Macfee & Ogen, proprietors of the Columbia Photograph Co. Macfee, alone, ran the business in 1909, and by 1913 the firm had been renamed the Columbia Art Gallery. In 1911 he was vice-president and photographer for the Cemetograph Co. He was again engaged in other interests besides photography: he was proprietor of the Cockade Theater, a confectioner and restaurant owner, and composed and published songs, including a patriotic son, The Blue and the Grey which accompanied motion picture footage he took of the inauguration of President Taft in 1909.It is unclear whether he continued photography professionally after 1915. About that time he bacame a manufacturer of spark plugs for automobiles. He continued in that work until his death on April 15, 1930 in Petersburg.

Roles performed

Processes used

Found in collections

Data from

Locations

Edward Daniel Macfee Jr. has 24 locations.

Birth (March 4, 1859)

Richmond, VA
USA

Studio or Business (September, 1889-April, 1894)

Decatur Avenue & Olathe Street
Norcatur, KS
USA

Active in (May, 1890)

Lenora, KS
USA

Active in (November, 1890)

Almena, KS
USA

Active in (March, 1891)

Republican City, NE
USA

Active in (March, 1891)

Orleans, NE
USA

Active in (March, 1891)

Alma, NE
USA

Active in (May, 1891)

Hastings, NE
USA

Active in (March-September, 1891)

Norton, KS
USA

Active in (December, 1894-May, 1895)

Wagoner, IT
USA

Active in (October, 1897)

Baltimore, MD
USA

Active in (November, 1897)

Rolling Hill, VA
USA

Studio or Business (November, 1898-1899)

102 Fayetville Street
Raleigh, NC
USA

Active in (February - April, 1898)

Louisburg, NC
USA

Active in (February, 1898)

Oxford, NC
USA

Active in (February, 1898)

Kittrell, NC
USA

Active in (February, 1898)

Franklinton, NC
USA

Active in (September, 1899)

Lynchburg, VA
USA

Studio or Business (1905-1909)

141 North Sycamore Street
Petersburg, VA
USA

Studio or Business (1905-1909)

105 West Washington Street
Petersburg, VA
USA

Active in (1907)

Rolling Hills, WV
USA

Studio or Business (1911-1913)

137 North Sycamore Street
Petersburg, VA
USA

Studio or Business (1915)

34 South Sycamore Street
Petersburg, VA
USA

Death (April 15, 1930)

Petersburg, VA
USA