By the Sea -- July 9, 2012

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde wrote the series of articles which gave this blog its name. Among his many accomplishments was taking some of the first Daguerreotypes in the United States. PH's grandson, William Manley Van der Weyde, took this photo on the beach at Atlantic City.  It seemed appropriate for  summertime. 

2217 -- May 9, 2012

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde wrote the series of articles which gave this blog its name. Among his many accomplishments was taking some of the first Daguerreotypes in the United States. PH's grandson, William Manley Van der Weyde, took this photo of locomotive 2217 of an unknown railroad.  (Source: George Eastman House. Accession Number: 1974:0056:1243).

Booker T Washington -- February 9, 2012

Educator Booker T Washington was very influential in the African American community and in the wider culture in the early 20th Century.

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde wrote the series of articles which gave this blog its name. Among his many accomplishments was taking some of the first Daguerreotypes in the United States. PH's grandson, William Manley Van der Weyde, took this photo of Booker T Washington, which was published in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, October, 1907.

William Manley Van Der Weyde on Flickr -- August 8, 2010

There is a set of William Manley Van Der Weyde photographs on the George Eastman House photostream on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/sets/72157607377134096/

Photos in the set include baseball players (Joe McGinnity among others), Navy ships, and a train wreck.

Now we have to find some of his grandfather's Daugerrotypes.

Why the Photographer Asked Burrelle -- July 10, 2010

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde wrote the series of articles which gave this blog its name. Among his many accomplishments was taking some of the first Daguerreotypes in the United States. PH's son Henry Van Der Weyde served in the Union Army during the Civil War and later emigrated to England, where he became a popular photographer and a pioneer in taking photographs with artificial light.

This article, from the 11-May-1905 Los Angeles Herald, concerns PH's grandson, William Manley Van der Weyde, who followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle. The Burelle's, founded by Frank Burelle in 1888, is still in business as BurellesLuce Clipping Service (http://www.burrellesluce.com/). Hetty Green, "The Witch of Wall Street," was a businesswoman who was reputed to be a miser. Jim Farley was a famous provider of strikebreakers to business and industry.

The photo is from the December, 1898 Broadway Magazine.

Why the Photographer Asked Burrelle

W. M. Vander Weyde, the New York photographer whose name appears on so many remarkable pictures, is the originator of a specialty. After many years' experience as a professional photographer he now directs all his efforts on the "hard to get" people. These are the celebrities like Hetty Green and Farley, the strike breaker, who do not care to have anyone know what they look like. These people do not want to be photographed and yet Vander Weyde has recent photographs of both.

Talking of the matter the other day, this specialist said: "I guess I get pictures that others cannot because I go after people at the right minute. And I want to say right here that I attribute about three-quarters of my success to one thing."

"What's that"? asked the questioner eagerly.

"I want to give every possible bit of credit to a firm called 'Burrelle's.' Burrelle has a big establishment in this city where he conducts the largest press-clipping bureau in the world. What has press clippings to do with my idea? I'll tell you. I want to know every prominent man and woman who is to visit America in the future. I want to know every big event that Is going to take place. If it is a national banquet, I want to know who will preside; if it is an international wedding, I want to know the clergyman who will officiate; if it is a yacht race, I want to know who will be prominently connected with it. Burrelle reads every paper published and from these papers he furnishes me the information months and sometimes years in advance. In this way I am able to get at people sometimes half a year before others in my line wake up to the realisation that these especial photographs will be needed. Burrelle is the secret of success and people in all sorts of business would do well to connect with Burrelle quickly."

A Photographer of Celebrities -- April 10, 2010

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde wrote the series of articles which gave this blog its name. Among his many accomplishments was taking some of the first Daguerreotypes in the United States. PH's son Henry Van Der Weyde served in the Union Army during the Civil War and later emigrated to England, where he became a popular photographer and a pioneer in taking photographs with artificial light.

This article, from the August, 1909 Wilson's Photographic Magazine, concerns PH's grandson, William Manley Van der Weyde, who followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle. The author, Sadakichi Hartmann, was an American poet and critic of German and Japanese descent. The photo is from the December, 1898 Broadway Magazine.

A PHOTOGRAPHER OF CELEBRITIES

W. M. Van Der Weyde is the journalist photographer par excellence. He is ready to photograph any person or object of interest. He does not care very much what or who it is, as long as it has some illustrative value. One day he may be sent out to discover a picturesque bit of Long Island, the next day he may climb the tower of the new East River bridge, and at the risk of his life take a new bird's-eye view, while the following day may see him busy at Pittsburg trying to secure a pictorial delineation of the glowing furnaces, smoke, and chimney stacks of one of the big mills.

He devotes a good deal of his time to portraiture, but he has no studio, and seldom fills orders for ordinary portraiture. He is in reach of celebrities. Every man and woman of note will sooner or later pass in review before his camera. Looking over his hundreds of portraits, one begins to doubt whether it is really such a great thing to be a celebrity, even if one's self is included among these soldiers of fame.

They are all done in a reportorial manner, straightforward, slightly artistic, commonplace at times, but always to the point; they give us a journalistic impression of the person represented. He strives for good composition, but circumstances do not always allow it; he has to make his pictures whenever he has the chance, no matter how bad the light or inadequate the surroundings may be. He has to get the likeness, that is the principal thing. It is worth five dollars and at times up to two hundred and fifty, as was the case with his Chauncey Depew, which was bought for advertising purposes.

The peculiar conditions under which he is obliged to make his pictures gives his figures something angular and crudely realistic. His "Everett Hale" is not short of being a masterpiece. Others are more indifferent, pictorially speaking. But they are always to the point, and mostly excellent character delineations.

Van der Weyde is a true cosmopolitan. He is a direct descendant from the famous Dutch painter Roger van der Weyde, and was born in Uruguay. His father was one of the first professionals in this country. Young Van der Weyde started as a reporter, then suddenly, ten years ago, without serving any apprenticeship whatever, he became a photographic reporter and has made it a successful profession. He has photographed one time or another nearly every object under the sun. He does not balk at any thing, and no obstacles are too big that he could not overcome them. But he is particularly fond of two subjects, celebrities and the night.

His night photographs belong to the best pictures I have seen of the kind. He has discovered for us a new beauty in the weird glare and glamour of nocturnal illuminations of metropolitan thoroughfares, railway scenes, and panoramic city views.

Sadakichi Hartmann.

Vander Weyde's "News-Photography." -- March 6, 2010

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde wrote the series of articles which gave this blog its name. Among his many accomplishments was taking some of the first Daguerreotypes in the United States. PH's son Henry Van Der Weyde served in the Union Army during the Civil War and later emigrated to England, where he became a popular photographer and a pioneer in taking photographs with artificial light.

This article, from the December, 1898 Broadway Magazine, concerns PH's grandson, William Manley Vander Weyde (that's how he spelled the family name), who followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle.

VANDER WEYDE'S "NEWS-PHOTOGRAPHY."

By CHAUNCEY MONTGOMERY M'GOVERN.

"VANDER WEYDE? Why, who is this chap Vander Weyde, anyhow?"

This question has been asked many times by people in all parts of America who read the up-to-date illustrated daily, weekly, and monthly publications that call New York City their home. One can scarcely pick up two consecutive copies of progressive newspapers like the World and Journal, The Illustrated American, Harper's Weekly or Munsey's Magazine without seeing on one or more of the most absorbing pictures the legend, "Copyright by Vander Weyde."

These words are never found on a "slow" picture. The legend always guarantees that the subject of the picture is one in which the people have a vital interest.

The gentleman in question is William Manley Vander Weyde. No doubt, countless people will say, "That information is no information," for so extreme is the modesty of Mr. Vander Weyde that outside of a limited coterie of working journalists he has never pushed his own personality forward, although in his twelve years of continuous residence in New York City he has ably filled some of its choicest journalistic berths.

Mr. Vander Weyde's department in photography is one of his own invention. When the progressive newspapers began to devote so much attention to illustrating from photographs a year or two ago, Mr. Vander Weyde was pained to see that while the articles were of the mind-absorbing character, the photographs as a rule were of the dull, haphazard style.

Mr. Vander Weyde, being a photographer in an amateur way himself, resigned his position as a writer and struck out for the new field of "News-Photography," and his success, though constantly on the increase, was assured from the very first.

There were other reasons besides his journalistic experience why Mr. Vander Weyde's "News-Photography" should have met with its wide public approbation. From each of three celebrated ancestors he has inherited one distinct talent. His father was John J. Vander Weyde, for many years editor and proprietor of the South American Review, the best known newspaper in the republic of Uruguay. His grandfather was Prof. P. H. Vander Weyde, the eminent scientist, author and inventor, who, with Prof. John W. Draper, made at the University of the City of New York the first photograph ever made anywhere in the United States. Another ancestor is Roger Vander Weyden, the famous Dutch painter, whose works are displayed among the "Old Masters' Collection" at the Metropolitan Museum, in this city. Mr. Vander Weyde is also a nephew of Henry Vander Weyde, whose famous "Light Studio" in London has made his name known throughout all England.

Mr. Vander Weyde was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, twenty-eight years ago, and remained there until his surviving parent died when he was only ten years of age. He lived with relatives in New Orleans up to the time that he entered newspaperdom in this city in 1886. He was founder of Doings, a Brooklyn society magazine, and has since been connected with the editorial departments of the Recorder, Times, Journal, Post and World.