Charles Bierstadt

1819-1903

German/American (New Bedford, Massachusetts; Niagara Falls, New York)

Charles Bierstadt born in Solingen, Prussia (near modern Dusseldorf, Germany) on November 28, 1819, son of Henry Bierstadt. In about 1832, his family immigrated to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Bierstadt began apprenticing in cabinetmaking at age fifteen. In 1856, he and his brother Edward experimented in photography; later, they established a successful photography business in Niagara Falls, New York. He made trips to take landscape photographs in the western United States, the Holy Land, and North Africa. He specialized in stereoscopic views. He also photographed the Iroquois and Onondaga Native American tribes.