Townsend Duryea
| Townsend Duryea | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 1823 Glen Cove, Nassau, New York, United States |
| Died | 13 December 1888 Balranald, New South Wales, Australia |
| Spouse(s) | Madelina Paff (1824–), Elizabeth Murray Smith (1836– ), Catherine Elizabeth Friggens (1847–1925) |
| Children | Susan Ann Duryea (1847– ), Frances A. Duryea (1850– ), Susannah V. Duryea (1853–1936), Townsend Duryea (1855–1924), Edwin Duryea (1857–1945), Richard Duryea (1859–1951), Frank Duryea (1861–1936), Elizabeth Ann Duryea (1865– ), Alfred Nixon Duryea (1874–1949), Catherine P. Duryea (1877–1951), Arthur Dunyea (1879–1951), Walter Joseph Duryea (1882–1972), Edith Duryea (1885– ) |
| Parent(s) | Hewlett Duryea (1794–1887) and Anne nee Bennett (1795–1882) |
Townsend Duryea (1823 – 13 December 1888) and his brother Sanford Duryea (22 February 1833 – 20 March 1903, see below) were American-born photographers who provided South Australians with invaluable images of life in the early Colony. Their parents were Ann Bennett Duryea (1795–1882), and Hewlett K. Duryea (1794–1887), a land agent, possibly a member of the family well known for starch manufacture in Glen Cove (often reported as "Glencoe"), Long Island, in New York City.
Townsend arrived in Melbourne in 1852 at the time of the gold rush, but may have despaired of striking it rich, as around September 1853 he set up a partnership with Archibald McDonald as "Duryea and Macdonald, Daguerrean Artists" at 3 and 5 Bourke St, East and sold their mining equipment. By September 1854 they had opened studios at 9 Collins St West and advertised their offices at 5 Bourke Street to let. Sanford followed his brother to Australia in 1854.
In 1854 they opened a studio in Geelong and one in Hobart at 46 Liverpool Street on 11 December 1854, and exhibited that same year in the Melbourne Exhibition.
Their partnership was dissolved January 1855 and Duryea was in Adelaide late that month, but the Liverpool Street, Hobart business was still advertising as "Duryea and Macdonald" in April, when Duryea's Adelaide studio was opened. It was in August, at his new Launceston studio, that McDonald began advertising as "Macdonald and Co,".
The Bourke Street business was taken over by Dr. Thomas A. Hill, then in 1862 bought out by Johnstone and Co., which in 1865 became Johnstone, O'Shannessy and Co with the addition of partner Emily O’Shannessy, and later Scott, Johnstone, & O'Shannessy, who were represented in Adelaide by the Melbourne Photographic Company at 16 Rundle Street).
He was soon touting for business (as M. Duryea, presumably to emphasise his French ancestry) at his studio upstairs 68 King William Street, at the corner of Grenfell Street rented from Alexander Hay.
He worked in the prosperous country towns Gawler and Burra in December 1855, when the style of the company changed to "Duryea Brothers", indicating that Sanford was running the business in his brother's absence.
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