{{Short description|American daguerreotype photographer}} {{pp-move}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}} thumb|Self-portrait, {{circa|1869}} thumb|{{center|''Two Girls in Identical Dresses'', {{circa|1857}}, located at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC}} thumb|{{center|Gurney's Daguerrean Saloon<br>inside 349 Broadway,<br>{{circa|1853}}}}

'''Jeremiah Gurney''' (October 17, 1812 &ndash; April 21, 1895) was an American daguerreotype photographer operating in New York.

==Biography== Gurney worked in the jewelry trade in Saratoga, New York, but learned about the daguerreotype from Samuel Morse, took up photography, and after moving to New York City, began selling photographs alongside jewelry from his shop.<ref name=HistoricCamera>{{cite web | url=http://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=243 | title=Jeremiah Gurney at Historic Camera }}</ref> Different sources call him either the owner of the first photographic gallery in America and second practitioner after Morse,<ref name=HistoricCamera /> or merely one of the earliest practitioners in New York City and "one of the first" photographic galleries on Broadway.<ref name=MMOA>[https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/285472 Metropolitan Museum of Art]</ref>

The Metropolitan Museum of Art credits his success to him "producing the finest daguerreotypes in Gotham", and praises his "tonally delicate, startlingly three-dimensional portraits" such as his "Two Girls in Identical Dresses".<ref name=MMOA /> A ''Scientific American'' article, reviewing an 1853 photographic display at the Crystal Palace in London praises American photographers and calls out the "exquisite taste and skill displayed in the pictures of Gurney and others" at the exposition.<ref name=ScientificAmerican>{{cite journal |title=Crystal Palace Exhibits of 1853 |journal=Scientific American |date=August 20, 1853 |volume=8 |issue=49 |url=http://www.historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=234 |access-date=November 19, 2022}}</ref>

Photographer of the American Civil War Mathew B. Brady was a journeyman in the firm that made the cases for Gurney's shop, and was inspired to enter photography by Gurney's success, starting up a rival firm.<ref name=HistoricCamera />

One of the things Gurney is best known for is having taken the only known photograph of Abraham Lincoln in death.<ref>''Treasures of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library'';&nbsp;&nbsp;edited by Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page 101</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Baram |first=Marcus |title=The amazing story behind the only photograph of President Lincoln in death |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/the-last-photo-of-abe-lincoln-2015-4 |access-date=October 19, 2015 |date=April 14, 2015 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Abraham Lincoln Pictures |url=https://www.americancivilwarstory.com/abraham-lincoln-pictures.html |access-date=October 19, 2015 |website=American Civil War Stories}}</ref>

==Gallery== <gallery> File:Harvard Theatre Collection - Nelse Seymour TCS 1.946.jpg|Actor Nelse Seymour File:Harvard Theatre Collection - D. E. Bandmann TCS 1.1052.jpg|Actor Daniel E. Bandmann File:White swans, by J. Gurney & Son.jpg|Swans in Central Park, New York File:J._Gurney_%26_Son_-_J.E.B._Stuart.jpg|CSA General J. E. B. Stuart </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== * Peterson, Christian A. ''Chaining the Sun: Portraits by Jeremiah Gurney'', {{ISBN|978-0-8166-3656-3}}, University of Minnesota Press (1999)

==External links== {{commons category|Jeremiah Gurney}} *[https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/adag/hd_adag.htm The Metropolitan Museum of Art] *[https://www.jeremiahgurney.com/ The Memoirs of Jeremiah Gurney] *National Portrait Gallery exhibit [https://npg.si.edu/exhibition/%E2%80%9Cwarranted-give-satisfaction%E2%80%9D-daguerreotypes-jeremiah-gurney “Warranted to Give Satisfaction”: Daguerreotypes by Jeremiah Gurney] *[http://www.alphonsegallery.zenfolio.com/gurney/ Private Gurney Collection at Alphonse Gallery]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurney, Jeremiah}} Category:Pioneers of photography Category:American portrait photographers Category:1812 births Category:1895 deaths Category:Photographers from New York City Category:People from Little Falls, New York Category:19th-century American photographers