Miss L. A. Gillett Artist - Sign

Notes:

Lucretia A. Gillett was 38 years old when she moved to Saline from Ogle County, Illinois with her father and mother in 1858. Less than two years later, Lucretia was listed in the 1860 Census for Washtenaw County as one of three Daguerrean artists (photographers) working in Saline, Michigan, the others being Susan Hulten and Lucretia's relative (perhaps grandfather), Mr. G. C. Gillett. However, by 1863, Lucretia was Saline's only commercial photographer and continued to be so for nearly thirty years.; Lucretia was born between June and July 1820 in New York State to Gershom B. and Mary Gillett. Very little is known about Lucretia's life and photographic career prior to her moving to Saline. It is quite possible, however, that she learned the art of the daguerreotype (a nineteenth-century photographic process which produced a non-reproducible photographic image on a mirror-like surface) from her relative Mr. G. C. Gillett and that she was a practicing photographer in both Illinois and New York before opening her studio in Saline. Lucretia lived with her family and managed her photographic studio at 203 N. Adrian Street (now Ann Arbor Street) for the duration of her life in Saline. During that time she focused primarily on studio portraits of many Saline families, like smaller carte-de-vi sites and larger cabinet cards. However, she is known to have taken other kinds of photographs such as architectural and novelty photos, and even Christmas cards, in addition to taking certain kinds of documentary photographs, including one that evidenced the ruins after the fire that destroyed twenty of Saline's buildings on May 23, 1881. Lucretia kept up with the advancements made in photographic technology. Whereas she was making the one-of-a-kind daguerreotypes when she first moved to Saline, by 1867 she changed over to the newer wet plate process which allowed her to make the less expensive and reproducible paper albumen prints.; Lucretia was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church of Saline where her father served as an elder until his death in 1875. After this time, Lucretia opened up her home as a boarding house, probably to supplement her income. It was during this time that a Miss Laura A. Green lived in the Gillett household and worked as Lucretia's servant and photographic assistant. By 1889, Miss Green had opened her own photographic studio in the nearby town of Manchester. It was by March of the following year that Lucretia sold her photographic business to the Ypsilanti photographer, George Waterman, who advertised his new business as "Miss Gillett's old stand". Until this time, Lucretia Gillett had run Saline's only successful photographic studio for nearly thirty years, but after her departure for California in 1890, a number of people struggled to fill the gap she had left, such as Waterman, Nichoson, Tremear, and even the Michigan Photo Company opened a Saline branch near the turn of the century.; Although both her mother and father are buried in Saline's Oakwood Cemetery, there is no record of Lucretia's death in Washtenaw County. A transfer of title and deed for the home on N. Adrian Street, seems to indicate that, at seventy years of age, shortly after she sold her business to Waterman, Lucretia Gillett moved to Long Beach, California with her two younger sisters, Ann Gillett and Delia Shephard and died there some time before March of 1894.

Data Provider:

University of Michigan. Libraries

Collection:

Saline Area Historical Photos

Subject Topic:

People, Photographer

Language:

UND

Rights:

This image may be protected by copyright law. Contact the Saline Area Historical Society for permission to reproduce, display, or transmit this image. and http://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/text/accesspolicy.html

URL:

http://name.umdl.umich.edu/IC-SDLPHOTOS-X-157A%5DSHS00188