Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide – 1839-1865. Peter Palmquist and Thomas R. Klaiborn, Stanford University Press, 2005. Pp. 453 and 455.
Gustave A. Moses (1836-1915). Daguerrotypise, ambrotypist, photographer, active New Orleans 1854-61, 1861, 1867-c.1915, Fort Morgan, Ala, 1864; Mobile Point, Ala, 1864, St. Louis, Mo. C. 1865.
Gustave A,. Moses was born July 4, 1836, in Speyer, Bavaria, a son of Samuel Wolfgang Moses. At around the age of nine he immigrated with his father to the United States, and according to his obituary, his father taught him the daguerreotype process “as soon as he was old enough to work it intelligently”. Gustave Moses opened a daguerreian gallery at 54 Camp Street, New Orleans, in 1854. That December he advertised that he had stereographs for sale at his rooms. Moses remained at 54 Camp Street in 1855. From at least 1857 to 1861 he and his brother, Bernard, were partners in the B. and G. Moses Gallery at 46 Camp Street.
In 1861 they closed the gallery to join the Confederate Army. Gustave was commissioned a first lieutenant in the 21st Louisiana Infantry.
Shortly after Moses’ discharge from the military, in August 1864, he and Eugene A. Piffet bought out Edward Jacobs’ gallery at 93 Camp Street. Moses and Piffet acquired Jacobs’ card stock and simply added their own imprint above Jacobs’ backmark. The partners specialized in “Ivorytype Miniatures taken in a most superior style—delivered in one hour’s notice.” In late September, 1864, General Richard Delafield, U.S.A., commissioned Moses and Piffet to photograph Fort Morgan and Mobile Point, in Mobile Bay, Alabama. By late 1864, Moses and Piffet were publishing photographs of Fort Morgan. The partners were assessed a federal professional tax of $25 on May 24, 1865. In November, 1865, Harper’s Weekly published a wood engraving of Gov. James M. Wells of Louisiana after a photograph by Moses and Piffet.
Around the end of the Civil War, Moses briefly operated a photographic gallery in St. Louis. He may have been the partner of Adolph Moses in G. and A. Moses, Photographers, Quincy, Illinois, from 1864 to 1867, with studios at 96 Hampshire in 1864-65 and at 146 Maine in 1866. Gustave returned to New Orleans by 1866 and with his brother Bernard revived the B. and G. Moses Gallery at 1 Camp Street. They remained there until at least 1870, at which time they also had a branch gallery at 92 Canal Street. In the 1890’s, Moses’ son, the architect Will H. Moses, joined the photographic firm of Gustave Moses and Son. When Gustave Moses died in New Orleans on October 23, 1915, at the age of seventy-nine, an obituary called him “the oldest photographer of New Orleans.” At the time of his death he resided at 1370 Moss Street. The firm of Gustave Moses and Sons continued in business in New Orleans until the 1930’s.
References:
Solo photographic work of Gustave Moses is represented at the Louisiana State Museum.
Gustave Moses obituary, New Orleans Daily Picayune, Oct. 24, 1915. Number of other references, see file copy.
1836 - 1915