Eliphalet M. Brown

1816-1886

American (New York, New York)

Eliphalet M. Brown Jr. was an American daguerreotypist, lithographer, and photographer. He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and by 1837 he was working as an artist and lithographer in New York. His name appears on the records of Currier & Ives, among other firms. In 1841 he exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York. In 1850 he was famously selected to accompany the 1852-1854 diplomatic mission to Japan led by Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Along the way of the journey Eliphalet took over 400 historical photographs recording the first significant contact between American and Tokugawa Japanese. When Brown returned from Japan we gave up photography for a Navy life. He served as Master and Ensign during the American Civil War. Later he was assigned to the Mediterranean. He retired from his naval career in 1875, got married and lived quietly until his death in 1886