Anthony / Lewis

Updated April 2008

Stereoscopes by E. & H.T. Anthony

and

W. H. & H. J. Lewis

William Lewis was born in September, 1791 at Pontypool, Monmouthshire, South Wales. William immigrated to the United States in November 1831 with 8 children including his sons William H., Henry John and Richard A Lewis. William died in 1879 at age 88. See footnote.

William and his eldest son, William H., started a business engaged in the manufacture of cameras and photographic equipment, located at 142 Chatham Square, in Manhattan. The firm was first known as W. and W. H. Lewis, and later, probably after his retirement, W. H. and H. J. Lewis. Frequent references will call them the Lewis Company.

From advertisements, directories and business cards we know that the company was diverse and had the capacity to make all forms of metal and wood items. The family listed themselves as wood workers, cabinet makers and machinists at various times. Some of the wood items produced by them include; Jenny Lind Tables which can be converted into a music stand, reading stands, writing stands, shaving stands, artist easels, ladies work tables, lamp stands, fire screens, checker, chess, and card tables and all kinds of walnut, rosewood and gilt frames for Daguerreotypes, show frames, diploma and certificate picture frames that are made to order.

Miscellaneous items produced included; straw hat pressing machines, gilding stands, galvanic batteries for electroplating, buffing lathes, buffing machines and polishing materials of every description, hand, brim and fluting irons, patent heel plates. In addition to a complete wood shop there was an iron foundry and metal shop. With talent and facilities like these it sounds like they could make anything.

The photography side of the business was huge. There was a photography studio upstairs know as the “Spread Eagle Daguerrian Gallery.” Photo related items the company made were listed as; cameras, all sizes of tubes and lenses of our own manufacture, patent plate vices, camera stands, head supports and chemicals. It is also noted they were the first regularly established manufacturer of daguerrian apparatus in the United States. The three generations of the Lewis family starting in 1849 and ending in 1902 would obtain 72 patents of which 67 were photo related making them by far the leader in the photo business.

Henry John Lewis was William’s second son and was born June 16, 1819 and died Oct 11, 1905 at age 86. Henry had five children: William Henry II (1842 - 1925), Ella, Catherine, Frank Stewart and Caroline.

Richard Alfred (R. A) Lewis, Henry’s brother was born July 15, 1821 and died Sep 22, 1891 at age 70. R.A. was the photographer in the family.

Henry, his brother Richard and William Henry Lewis II and Frank Stewart Lewis would all contribute to the business making the Lewis family a three generation business.

Henry would eventually take over the family business from William and of the seven stereo related patents most of them would be issued to Henry. About 1870 Henry moved the business to Freeman Street in the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn. William Henry Lewis II would take over the business from Henry and eventually along with his uncle Richard would become employees and friends of the Anthony’s. As we shall see, the firm of E. & H. T. Anthony and the Lewis family will be closely linked. Anthony would purchase most if not all of the patents issued to the Lewis’s and would become financial benefactors to them. Likely it was Anthony who owned the factory in Greenpoint. It was found that William H. was one of Anthony’s leading camera equipment designers in the 1880’s and 1890’s. I believe that the Lewis’s account for a majority of stereoscopes produced into the 1890’s when H. C. White Company took over the lead.

The firm of E. & H. T. Anthony was in business from 1841 to 1902 and for most of that time located at 501 Broadway, New York City. They succeeded the Lewises as the leading supplier of photographic supplies, cameras, stereoscopes and stereoviews in the US. They were importers of stereoscopes from Europe until the Holmes/Bates viewer became the instrument of choice for viewing stereoviews. They were one of the largest publishers of stereoviews for most of the years they were in business. They also sold domestic viewers made by Lee and Beckers.

Anthony was a kingpin in the photography business selling stereo equipment made by others and items made in their own factories. They likely supplied thousands of individual photographers and in fact offered a 10% discount to the trade. In 1877 Anthony had 5 distinct factories, three of which were in New Jersey. The factory at 65 Broadway was a 40 X 220 ft building with three floors. The lower floor was devoted to the making of stereoscopic views and stereoscopes. The main floor of 501 Broadway was devoted entirely to the sale of stereoscopes and views. I have found some Anthony viewers with labels from another reseller. I have never found a stereoscope with an Anthony label. Owning over 240 different Holmes/Bates viewers you would think that a substantial number of them would have come from Anthony and after some serious investigation I discovered that over 10% of them were made by either the Anthony factories or Lewis.

Anthony learned early on the value of patents and as a result patented nearly everything. He would acquire other patents including one of the first stereoscope patents ever issued, #40,798, issued December 1, 1863 to Wheeler & Bazin which was purchased May 7, 1878 and reissued to Anthony & Company. Charles H. Wheeler was the president of the American Stereoscope Company of Boston. Although this stereoscope did not resemble the more common Holmes/Bates viewer it did give Anthony the patent protection to produce the regular hand held stereoscope. The Lewis Co. acquired the patent of Edwin K. Page which would be assigned to Anthony & Co. in 1878. The Anthony Company acquired the patent of Peter Murphy in 1873. Murphy may have been an employee.

This article is not concerned with the historical aspect of the Anthony company but will illustrate the products made by the Lewis's and sold by Anthony and detail identification features.

The first patent #165,241 was issued July 6, 1875. It was a stereographoscope that folded up into a box. See Paul Wing's "Stereoscopes, The First One Hundred Years" page 33 for details. As Paul did a superb job of illustrating and explaining some of the more uncommon viewers it would be redundant for me to do it here.

The second patent #168,652 was issued October 11, 1875. The claim was for a hinge for a handle or stand.

The third patent #170,749 was issued December 7, 1875. Together with the Wheeler & Bazin patent of December 1, 1863, W. H. Lewis began making Holmes/Bates viewers. These viewers are usually stamped on the end of the slide with these two dates. They will be found with a variety of features as they were produced for a number of years into the 1880’s. a telltale feature is the groove on the bottom of the slide which was the only patent claim on the Lewis patent. This groove kept the clip in place as it traversed the slide. Not all viewers will have this groove. Other items to look for are; a clip in either of these three styles and a fleur-de-lis blind stamp at the center of the crossbar.

Examples of Lewis made Holmes/Bates stereoscopes.

Anthony acquired the patents of the Quirolo/Ardito group about 1880. Stereoscopes produced in this period will be similar to the above, most had paper hoods and many were on stands. The December 7, 1875 patent date will be stamped on the end of the slide while the Quirolo patent of February 20, 1866 and the reissue patent of April 24, 1877 will be found on the crossbar. The crossbar includes the fleur-de-lis.

Look for one of the following features as to the hinge arrangement.

Lewis’ fourth patent #183,579 was issued October 24, 1876 and it was for a stereographoscope. See Wing's book, page 135.

Lewis’ fifth patent # 201804 was issued March 26, 1878 for a self storing drum type viewer. A second similar design was housed in a square wooden box. See Wing’s, page 128. Note the lazy tong design patented by Page in 1870. I believe Lewis made all the Page style viewers.

Lewis’ sixth patent #242,830 was issued June 14, 1881 for a stereographoscope. See Wing’s page 136. The handle hinge shown below is an adaptation of this patent. This hinge is marked with the patent date. The patent will later be acquired by Underwood and Underwood and the handle hinge was used by them for several years. Shown here are two of these viewers with a single rod. A double rod model was produced that had a socket for the magnifying lens making it a true stereographoscope. I suspect that the viewer on the right has had the handle replaced at some time. The nose piece may be made of wood as shown or thin metal. The nose piece is identical to the Page viewer also produced by Lewis. These viewers are rare.

Lewis’ seventh patent #265,110 was issued September 26, 1882. It was for another stereographoscope with lazy tongs. See Wing’s, page 136.

The last generation of hand held viewers is the most confusing. In Wing’s book on pages 94 & 95 Paul describes these viewers as being made by Quirolo & Ardito. The similarities are striking. Lewis may have simply made adaptations of his own or these viewers may have been made after Anthony purchased Ardito’s patents. However I believe they were made by Lewis not Ardito, as the Ardito features are in addition to the features found in Lewis’s patents. There are subtle differences which I will describe and illustrate on the model below.

Look for the metal strip on the top of the nose piece. If you examine a Quirolo viewer you will see that there is a flat spot just before the lens plate. This flat spot has a nail in it. On Lewis viewers the metal piece is rounded almost to the face plate and nails are in the rounded part. Lewis viewers now have folding wires but the difference is clear. On Ardito viewers the folding wires are held in by small brass “U” shaped holders. On Lewis viewers the folding wires are pressed into holes in the sides of the crossbar and the cross bar has a angled cut to hold the wire in place. There is also a marked change in the slide design which is another Lewis feature. This viewer has the Lewis groove and the Lewis clip. If you find a viewer with a groove on it, it was made by Lewis. The banjo shape is also an identifier but not the only style used. There are no dates or marks on any of this type viewer that I have examined, whereas Ardito/Quirolo were quite good at marking their viewers.

As for the three legged stands shown in Wings’ book on pages 94 & 95, you will notice some differences in the wood turning. I have also seen this type stand on viewers made by Bates. I believe the legs were easily obtainable by any scope maker and I can find no patents for them.

H. C. White will produce a wider version of the folding wire crossbar after 1883. This viewer also has the identical metal nose trim as shown above.

Anthony sold a limited number of accessory stands to be used with a standard hand held viewer. A special hinge bracket was used which had a hole at one end. The handle thread went through the hole and is positioned and tightened to hold the stand in place. A metal pin at the other end helped to hold the position. A telltale large circle on the banjo was the result. These are rare and were not very practical.

Note: An email contact from Robert Lewis Protzmann ( Protzy41@optonline.net ) a descendant of the Lewis family and a genealogist has provided new information on the Lewis family of which only a small portion is shown here.