History: Schuyler Colfax Baldwin

Schuyler Colfax Baldwin:

Pioneering Kalamazoo Photographer

By Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library

Photographs taken locally before 1850 are rare, but one enterprising young daguerreotypist forever changed the way West Michigan residents saw themselves and their environs. The images captured by Schuyler C. Baldwin between 1851 and 1900 offer fi ne examples of how life looked in nineteenth century Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, and beyond. Born in New York in 1822, Schuyler Colfax Baldwin was the grandson of Revolutionary War hero General William Colfax and a cousin of Schuyler Colfax, who would later become vice president during Ulysses S. Grant’s administration.

Already an experienced photographer, Baldwin traveled to Kalamazoo in 1851 where his brother-in-law was a professor of language and literature at the Kalamazoo Theological Seminary (Kalamazoo College). Baldwin set up “one of the most magnifi cent galleries to be found in the Union” in second fl oor rooms overlooking East Main Street. Baldwin was to become the fi rst permanent full-time daguerreotypist in Kalamazoo County. Daguerreotypes, the fi rst publicly available form of photography, required an abundance of natural light and exceedingly long exposure times. Subjects were required to sit perfectly still for long periods of time, often several minutes. Regardless, customers eagerly posed for once-in-a-lifetime artistic portraits in Baldwin’s Main Street rooms or aboard his “Daguerreotype Car,” a fully equipped horse-drawn studio. Photographic technology was changing rapidly and by the mid-1850s, Baldwin had discontinued taking daguerreotypes in favor less expensive ambrotypes, tintypes, and paper photographs. By the end of the decade, six dollars would buy a dozen large photo prints at “Baldwin’s Premium Gallery.” Over time, Baldwin’s interests shifted from portraiture toward architecture and landscape photography. When stereoscopic photography came into vogue after the Civil War, Baldwin captured hundreds of stereographs of Kalamazoo, Saugatuck, Grand Rapids, and elsewhere. Baldwin apparently planned to release a book of his photographs in 1891, featuring “Kalamazoo houses and scenes, including 24 pictures which will be a gem of art.” A complete book of Baldwin’s work was never published, however many of his photos can be found in other local publications. Though uncredited, several of Schuyler Baldwin’s photos were seen Kalamazoo Illustrated, a book published locally by Ihling Bros. & Everard in 1892. It is also highly likely that photos taken by Baldwin were included (again uncredited) in t k the Art Work of City of Kalamazoo series, published in 1894 by the W.H. Parish Publishing Company of Chicago. Schuyler Baldwin remained an independent photographer in West Michigan until his death in August 1900. He is buried in Valley City Cemetery in Grand Rapids. Baldwin’s Kalamazoo studio space on East Main Street (Michigan Avenue) was recently renovated as part of a multi-million-dollar redevelopment project. Many of Baldwin’s images are held in collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Grand Rapids Public Museum, the Clarke Historical Library, Bentley Historical Library (U of M), the George Eastman Museum, and the Kalamazoo Public Library.

More at kpl.gov