Steve Massengill
NC Archives and History

Perhaps the earliest photographer in Goldsboro was a man named M. E. Kennedy, who made daguerreotypes at the Odd Fellows Hall in late October, 1853.

During this early period citizens of Goldsboro would have had to travel to another city to get a likeness of themselves.

By the early 1860s North Carolina native Calvin A. Price (ca. 1821-1872) was working in Goldsboro in a studio located on West Center Street. He likely made ambrotypes, tintypes, and cartes-de-visites. The war interrupted his business, which he resumed for several years after the conflict in quarters in the rear of Dr. Craton’s Office. Price operated the first permanent photo gallery in Goldsboro. By 1869 he had moved to Fayetteville.

Virginia native and successful photographer John W. Watson (1828-1889) operated an itinerant studio in Goldsboro in 1868 and established a permanent one there between 1875 and 1877. His son Hugh W. Watson ran the business part of that time in a studio on Center Street next to the Express office.

An itinerant photographer named L. D. Ives next appeared in Goldsboro in the late 1860s or early 1870s.

By 1870, a traveling artist by the name of James W. Jones was working in Goldsboro.

An important itinerant named Edward Featherston Small (1844-1924) made stops in Goldsboro in 1870 and again between 1873 and 1875. His portrait photographs were of the card variety. The North Carolina native quit photography and became a cigarette salesman for the prominent tobacco firm of W. Duke, Sons and Co. of Durham.

Itinerant Rufus Morgan (1846-1880) worked from his tent on East Center Street opposite the Bank of New Hanover during the early 1870s and again in 1877 and 1878. He specialized in stereographs but none have been located of Goldsboro.

Another veteran North Carolina photographer who brought his skills to Goldsboro was Virginia native William Shelburn (1834-1911). In 1877-1878 and again in 1884-1886 he set up a gallery on Center Street one door north of the Express office in rooms formerly occupied by Hugh W. Watson.

During the early 1880s itinerant James M. Dodson operated his gallery on West Center Street in Goldsboro before moving on to another location.

Another itinerant, John T. Dees, operated from a tent in Goldsboro in 1883-1884. He specialized in pictures of horses, livestock, and babies.

The first long-term permanent operator in Goldsboro was Alexander A. Miller (1857-1936). He ran his photography business from the 1880s to 1930 from his West Center Street location.

A pair of traveling photographers named Pillars and Robinson worked briefly in Goldsboro about 1888.

Miller must have dominated the business in the 1890s. Only two others were found in Goldsboro during the decade — K. G. White about 1895 and Edward R. Ellis in the late 1890s.

The most influential photographer in Goldsboro in the early 20th century was Albert O. Clement (1882-1936). He was active in the Wayne County seat from 1904 until his death in 1936. Numerous photographers worked with and studied under Clement including John E. Hage (1904-1905), Ben V. Matthews (1912-1913), Herbert (Biggs) Briggs (1915-1916, 1923-1925, and operated his own studio in Goldsboro from 1927-1935), Fritz Schweikect (by 1920), James W. Denmark (1921), Louise Womble (ca. 1926-1940s, Goldsboro’s only female photographer), and Henry F. Moore (mid-1930s).

By 1910 several photographers made brief appearances in Goldsboro including Grover C. Johnson, William Dorns, and Edgar Baker.

Calvin A. Flanagan (b. ca. 1880s) was Goldsboro’s only identified African- American photographer before World War II. He was active from ca. 1919 to 1939. Part of this time he worked as a street photographer.

In the mid-1930s Marion J. Talley operated the Hollywood Studio in Goldsboro, and Office of War Information and U.S. Farm Security Administration photographer John Vachon (1914-1975) took photographs in Goldsboro during the period 1937-1943.