Firm
George S. Cook’s gallery
The King Street gallery George Smith Cook ran from 1849 until the family business closed it in 1891 — a portrait studio and a photographic supply business, and the base from which Cook photographed the war in Charleston Harbor.
Cook settled his family in Charleston in October 1849 and established a permanent studio. Craig’s Daguerreian Registry records him at 235 King Street in 1852. The Dictionary of Virginia Biography notes that he ran a lucrative trade in photographic supplies out of the same King Street premises.
His carte de visite of Major Robert Anderson, made in February 1861, sold by the thousand that spring. Early in 1864 Cook moved his family toward Columbia and stored equipment, negatives and records in a temporary gallery there; all of it burned in February 1865.
Cook reopened in Charleston after the war and went on working there through the 1870s. He bought a Richmond studio in 1880 and moved; the Charleston gallery, latterly managed by his elder son, closed in 1891.
Partners and operators
- George Smith Cookproprietor · 1849 – 1880
- George LaGrange Cookmanager, after the war · – 1891
Addresses
- George S. Cook’s gallery235 King Street
- George S. Cook, No. 265 King Street265 King Street
- George S. Cook’s house on South BatterySouth Battery
Works
- Interior of Secession Hall[1860 Dec.] · George Smith CookAttributedLibrary of Congress · LOT 4163 [item] [P&P]
- The Palmetto Battery near Charleston, 1863[photographed 1863, printed between 1880 and 1889] · George Smith CookVerifiedLibrary of Congress · LOT 4210, no. 8 [P&P]
- Interior view of Fort Sumter in 1864 [i.e. 1863][photographed 1863, printed between 1880 and 1889] · George Smith CookVerifiedLibrary of Congress · LOT 4210, no. 14 [P&P]
Statement by statement
- VerifiedCook settled in Charleston in October 1849 and established a permanent studio there.Dictionary of Virginia Biography
- AttributedCraig’s Daguerreian Registry records George Smith Cook at 235 King Street in 1852.Craig’s Daguerreian Registry Pioneer American Photographers, 1839–1860
- VerifiedCook’s stored negatives and records were destroyed in the burning of Columbia in February 1865.Dictionary of Virginia Biography
- VerifiedThe Charleston studio closed in 1891.Dictionary of Virginia Biography
Sources
- “George Smith Cook (23 February 1819–27 November 1902),” Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia, Richmond. https://old.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Cook_George_Smith
- Stephen Davis and Jack W. Melton Jr., 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War (Charleston: Historical Publications LLC, 2020).
- John S. Craig, Craig’s Daguerreian Registry (Torrington, Conn.: John S. Craig), consulted through Pioneer American Photographers.
- Pioneer American Photographers, 1839–1860 — a compilation of period advertisements, directory entries and registry records, with each entry citing the periodical or directory it came from. https://pioneeramericanphotographers.com/