WThe New York Public Library  /  Photographers’ Identities Catalog
PIC ID: 376750
Image of Amor de Cosmos from Wikidata
Image of Amor de Cosmos from Wikidata

Amor de Cosmos

American, 1825-1897

Male

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William Alexander Smith was born August 20, 1825 in Windsor, Nova Scotia. After becoming a Mormon in 1845, he traveled to Boston, New York and New Orleans, before settling in Kanesville, Iowa, where he opened a daguerreotype gallery. He advertised a specialty in views of "Houses, Stores, Tents, Wagons, Graves, &c. At Moderate Prices." In 1852, as a partner in the studio Cannon & Smith, he advertised that he accepted cash, livestock, wheat, flour, butter and adobe bricks as payment. He left Utah in 1853, travelling the California gold fields as an itinerant daguerreotypist. In February of 1854, Smith legally changed his name to Amor de Cosmos. De Cosmos opened a new studio above a saloon in Columbia, California, but it was destroyed by a fire the same week. He settled in Oroville, California, where he operated a studio until July, 1857, when he sold it and moved to Victoria, British Columbia. There, he started a newspaper, the Victoria Colonist, and served in the Vancouver Island House of Assembly and the British Columbia Legislative Council. In 1872, he was elected premier of British Columbia, and remained in politics until 1882. In 1895, De Cosmos was declared insane. He died in Victoria, July 4, 1897.

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Locations

Amor de Cosmos has 9 locations.

Birth (August 20, 1825)

Windsor, NS
Canada

Active in (ca. 1850)

Boston, MA
USA

Active in (ca. 1850)

New Orleans, LA
USA

Active in (1852)

Kanesville, IA
USA

Active in (ca. 1852)

Nauvoo, IL
USA

Active in (1852)

Salt Lake City, UT
USA

Active in (1854)

Columbia, CA
USA

Active in (1854-1857)

Oroville, CA
USA

Death (July 4, 1897)

Victoria, BC
Canada