Firm

Osborn’s Gallery

James M. Osborn’s own gallery, opened at King and Liberty streets after the Osborn & Durbec partnership ended in February 1862, and worked through the rest of the war. The Metropolitan Museum of Art records the gallery as the publisher of cartes de visite of Fort Sumter taken in April 1861.

Osborn worked here through the war. The gallery’s name appears on the mounts of Fort Sumter cartes de visite of April 1861 as publisher — which is a different claim from having exposed the plate, and the distinction matters: an album at the Metropolitan Museum of Art holds sixteen such cards, of which the museum assigns two to Osborn’s Gallery and the rest to other hands.

Osborn left Charleston for New York in February 1868 and died there later that year.

Partners and operators

James M. Osbornproprietor · 1862 – 1868

Addresses

Osborn’s GalleryKing and Liberty streets

Works

The Evacuation of Fort Sumter — an album of sixteen cartes de visiteApril 1861 · Osborn’s GalleryDisputedThe Metropolitan Museum of Art

Statement by statement

VerifiedOsborn opened a gallery at King and Liberty streets after February 1862 and worked there through the war.Davis & Melton 2020
VerifiedOsborn’s Gallery is recorded as publisher of April 1861 Fort Sumter cartes de visite, two of which the Metropolitan Museum of Art assigns to the gallery as photographer.The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sources

Stephen Davis and Jack W. Melton Jr., 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War (Charleston: Historical Publications LLC, 2020).
Department of Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection