Finally completed a first-version of my timeline for Napoleon Sarony. For complete details and sources, see the original article. Here I’ll give you the executive summary.
The first surprise is that he was not christened Napoleon Sarony, but Gustave Adolphe Napoleon Sarony. None of the existing biographical sketches had much to say about his parentage, other than the ‘fact’ that he learned lithography from his father, who was a Prussian officer at the Battle of Waterloo before emigrating to Canada. Other sources had the father emigrating from England. In fact, he may well have been Prussian, and could even have been at Waterloo, but his occupation was listed as clerk to a perfumer at the time of his wedding in Quebec City in 1818 and later he is listed as a merchant there. Gustave Adolphe Napoleon Sarony was born in 1821 to Adolphus Sarony and Marie Lehoullier.
The family emigrated to New York state in the early 1830s — there are conflicting reports as to whether Napoleon’s mother was still alive — I have not yet resolved that issue. Napoleon’s father became a naturalized citizen of the USA, and as Napoleon was still a minor at the time, he automatically also received citizenship. It is popularly stated that he worked for Currier (of Currier and Ives) in the 1830s, but I did not investigate that possibility. Certainly he must have learned lithography somewhere, because in the 1840s he opens a lithography firm in partnership with Henry B Major. There is another issue that needs further investigation — Henry B Major married Flora A Sarony — was she Napoleon’s sister? And Napoleon married Ellen Major — was she Henry’s sister? I suspect both those questions will be answered positively, but have not yet found the records.
Ellen died in the 1850s, and Napoleon took his children to Europe. His brother Oliver had preceded him to England and established a thriving photographic business there. About 1866 Napoleon Sarony returned to New York and opened his own photographic studio there, at 630 Broadway. Soon afterward he either moved, or the street was renumbered, and the studio address was 680 Broadway.
Most online biographies say he moved out of that studio in 1871 — but I have established beyond doubt that it was May 1st 1876 or 1877 — most probably May 1st 1877.
The new studio at 37 Union Square, was occupied until ‘about 1885′ according to most second-hand reports, but those are all copying from one another. On researcher pegged the date at April 1896, just a few months before Napoleon died. That, I think, is probably correct. At least my observations suggest it was after April 1895.
So we now know that Sarony imprints for these addresses fall in these date ranges:
- 630 Broadway – 1866 to 1867 or 1868
- 680 Broadway – 1867 or 1868 to 1877
- 37 Union Square – 1877 to 1896
- 256 Fifth Avenue – 1896+ (continued to be used by son Otto after Napoleon’s death November 1896.)
Other Sarony addresses in the USA are all from after his death: there is still a Sarony studio more than a century later (though in Philadelphia, not New York).
I have begun working on a typology for Sarony imprints, using differences in style, typography, and card-stock to further narrow the dates for each of these locations. To date, I have not found a card with the 630 Broadway imprint, though I have found references to them. If anyone can supply a copy of a card with the 630 Broadway imprint, or any dated cards from 1866 to 1896, your help would be much appreciated. Contact me through this form and I’ll send you my email address. Thanks.
