Joseph Abel

American, active 1890s

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Joseph Abel was born December 26, 1872 in Pennsylvania (though the 1900 Census lists Washington, DC). By 1899, Abel was a member of the Capitol Camera Club, and had partnered with Leo Baum as Abel & Co., dealers of photographic supplies in Washington, DC. That must have been short lived, as the 1900 census and city directory of that year suggest he was a stenographer for the Department of Agriculture. He continued that work and intermittently ran his studio throughout the 1900s and 1910s. In the 1920s he revived Abel & Co., again with Baum. They were commercial photographers. By the 1930s the business specialized in photostats and blueprints (Abel's son was by then an architect). His career in the 1940s and 1950s is unknown. He died in Washington on December 17, 1961.