Thomas Martin Easterly

Thomas Easterly was an early practitioner of the daguerreotype process, learning about it just two years after its invention by Louis Daguerre. Easterly learned the process in the East, but by 1845 moved West, photographing the changing American landscape and the mostly White settlers. Eastery was active in St. Louis throughout  the mid-nineteenth century, and his work documented the changing city.

Easterly’s first employment was as an itinerant writing and calligraphy instructor in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. According to Peter Palmquist, author of Pioneer Photographers From the Mississippi to the Continental Divide: A Biographical Dictionary 1839-1865, Easterly may have learned the daguerreotype process in New York State between 1841 and 1844. His first daguerreotypes were of landscapes and architecture in Vermont, including views of the Winooski and Connecticut Rivers. 

In 1845, with fellow daguerreotype photographer Frederick F. Webb, Easterly traveled along the Mississippi River, advertising their gallery as representatives of the Daguerreotype Art Union and Photographic Association. They made portraits of individuals and provided instruction in the daguerreotype process.

In 1846, they traveled to Missouri and had temporary galleries in Boonville, Fayette, Glasgow and Liberty. They stayed in Liberty through the winter of 1847. In the spring, they traveled down the Missouri River. In Jefferson City, Webb stayed to open his own gallery. Easterly traveled to St. Louis, and opened a gallery at 112 Glasgow Row. There he made photographs of individuals and well-known persons, including Chief Keokuk, leader of the Sauk and Fox tribe and individuals accompanying him. While in St. Louis, on June 18, 1847, Easterly successfully daguerreotyped a bolt of lightning, which was one of the first successful attempts at photographing this phenomenon.

Easterly worked as the operator at John E. Ostrander’s gallery at Fourth and Olive Streets. After Ostrander died in 1849, Easterly became the owner of the gallery. In 1865, a fire destroyed Easterly’s studio and parts of his daguerreotype collection. Easterly moved his gallery to 65 North Fourth Street in St. Louis 

In his time, Easterly was a well-known photographer in St. Louis. He made portraits of individuals such as Sterling Price, William Greenleaf Eliot, Charles Keemle, and fellow daguerreotype photographer Enoch Long, along with many others. Easterly was also known for his streetscape views  of St. Louis taken from the window of his studio. Easterly also produced a large body of outdoor landscape views and views of St. Louis, and the surviving examples are the largest known group of outdoor work from a daguerreotype studio.

Easterly was devoted to the daguerreotype process, earning him the nickname “The Daguerreian." In the 1860s, as the daguerreotype was being superseded by the wet-plate collodion process, Easterly continued to work in the daguerreotype process until 1880.