Moore & Ward

README.md

Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide: A Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865, Peter E. Palmquist, Thomas R. Kailbourn, 2005, Page 447

[Justus E. Moore and Captain Ward] received official permission to set up their daguerreian apparatus in the Capitol, including in the private chambers of Vice President Johnson and in the chamber of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. In early March, Moore wrote that he and Ward had "taken many likenesses of the most distinguished members of the Senate and the House of Representatives." Even newly elected President William Henry Harrison sat for Moore and Ward in early March; their portrait of Harrison is thought to have been the first ever taken of a president, and probably was the last portrait taken of him before his death in April 1841.

Sources:

1. Thomas M. Weprich, "The Pencil of Nature in Washington, D.C.: Daguerre-otyping the President," Daguerreian Annual 1995 (Pittsburgh: Daguerreian Society,1995), pp. 115, 117 nn. 1-3; New York Journal of Commerce, Aug. I, 1840; John S.Craig, comp. and ed., Craig's Daguerreian Registry, vol. 3, Pioneers and Progress (Tor-rington, Conn.: John S. Craig, 1996), pp. 400-401.

2. Thomas M. Weprich, "The Pencil of Nature in Washington, D.C.: Da-guerreotyping the President," Daguerreian Annual 1995 (Pittsburgh: DaguerreianSociety, 1995), pp. 115, 117-18 nn. 7-8, 15, 19-22; idem, "Pioneer Photographers inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania," Pennsylvania History 64, no. 2 (Spring 1997): 195-96, 202;John S. Craig, comp. and ed., Craig's Daguerreian Registry, vol. 3, Pioneers and Progress(Torrington, Conn.: John S. Craig, 1996), p. 401.

3. Weprich, "Pioneer Photographers in Pittsburgh," pp. 195-96, 202.

4. St. Louis Misouri Republican, June 2, 1841; Charles Van Ravenswaay, "The Pio-neer Photographers of St. Louis," Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society 10, no. 1(Oct. 1953), pp. 48, 65; Weprich, "Pencil of Nature," pp. 116-17. The correspondencerequesting the use of the Senate committee room, as reprinted in Henry ThomasShanks, ed., The Papers of Willie Person Mangum, Vol. 3, 1839-1843 (Raleigh: StateDepartment of Archives and History, 1953): 173, cites the correspondents as Moore and"Walter," rather than Ward. In the absence of any other evidence that Moore had apartner other than Ward, "Walter" is presumed to have been a transcriptional error.

5. Ellen Beasley, "Daguerreian Artists in Tennessee," New Daguerreian Journal1, no. 5 (Apr. 1972): 18, citing W. W. Clayton, History of Davidson County, Tennessee(Philadelphia: 1880); Craig, Daguerreian Registry, p. 401; Margaret Denton Smith andMary Louise Tucker, Photography in New Orleans: The Early Years, 1840-1865 (BatonRouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), p. 27.6. New Orleans Daily Picayune, Mar. 27, 1842. It is not certain if the subject of thisentry was the same Justus E. Moore who wrote the pamphlet, The Warning ofThomas Jefferson, or a Brief Exposition of the Dangers to be Apprehended to our Civil andReligious Liberties from Presbyterianism (Philadelphia: Wm. Cunningham, 1844).

I have contacted someone and they responded to me claiming:

1. The identity of "Captain" Ward is not known other than that he was from the South. He was not an actual captain (I asked since military records could be helpful) and that it was an honorary title.
2. The original portrait of President Harrison is almost certainly lost, with the only chance of it ever coming to light is if someone had painted a portrait of it before it was lost.
3. Moore's daguerreotype of President Jackson may actually still exist somewhere as Moore sold a few copies.

Photography in New Orleans: The Early Years, 1840-1865 by Margaret Denton Smith, 1982

Chapter 2, Establishment of Daguerreotype Portrait Galleries, p. 27

During the spring of 1842, others practiced their daguerreotyping skills in the Crescent City. In March, Justus E. Moore opened his rooms in a boardinghouse, Madame Berniaud's, at the corner of Canal Street. Appealing to local sentiment. Moore advertised with a testimonial to his abilities from Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New Orleans. According to Jackson's letter. Moore, one of the first to photograph him in retirement, had solicited the testimonial. Moore offered for sale likenesses of the general, which he had made the previous year at the Hermitage.[7]

Claim #3 seems to be corroborated by this passage: "Moore offered for sale likenesses of the general, which he had made the previous year at the Hermitage"

Also, here is his obituary:

The Catholic Telegraph, 10 April 1845

The original print by The Catholic Herald probably is out there somewhere, but I don't think it's digitized. Here's some years from 1835-1844, 1847-1848 and the Library of Congress's list.

Died, of pulmonary consumption, on board, the barque Amelia, on her passage from Messina to New Orleans, Dr. Justus E. Moore, in the 34th year of his age.

By the advice of his physicians, he was induced to seek for better health under the influence of a Southern climate, and the intelligence of his death will be received with feelings of deep regret by the large circle of friends to whom his amiable disposition and pleasing manners had endeared him.

He was endowed by nature with talents of a high order, and distinguished by his successful assiduity in the cultivation of his mind. Enraptured in the pursuit of knowledge— his constant and severe application seriously impaired his health, and his early death has only realized the gloomy anticipations of his friends. When the storm of fanaticism and religious proscription raged with unprecedented fury in our devoted city. during the past eventful year-when the "No-Popery' cry resounded through the disgraced district of Kensington, and the buruing dwellings left no doubt as to the import of the words-and when the sacred temples of the living God were ruthlessly given to
the flames—-and thousands of our citizens beheld. the scene with undisguised feelings of holy delight--at that fearful period Dr. Moore did not shrink from the open and tearless expression of his indignant reprobation of the unjust and anti-American proscription: and proved himseif the eloquent advocate of
the principles of civil and religious liberty.

The subsequent publication by him, "The Warning of Thomns Jefferson," exerted an immense influence on the public mind and gained for Dr. Moore the respect and admiration of every friend of the equal rights of man.

The malignant fury off fanaticism and proscription did not fail to single him out as a target for its poisoned arrows. To avoid the force of his appeal to the better feelings of the community, he was with singular inconsistency charged with being a Jesuit in disguise-though he was not a member of the Catholic church, and had frequently disavowed all connection with it.

He was also attacked over the signature of "An American Citizen," by one who was evidently conscious that his own name and reputation would add but little to the influence of his Reply-or was apprehensive that the vulgar scurrility of the production, in connection with its utter disregard of truth, might not favorably affect his own standing before the public. He, however. manifested more prudence than valor, in waiting till after Dr. Moore had sailed for Europe, and may congratulate himself that even the shadow of his name will escape the scorching castigation which his falsehoods merited, and may exult as the degenerate descendant of his Aboriginal ancestors-who always indeed discharged their poisoned arrows tinder cover-but never waited till the adversary had retired.

Dr. Moore has now passed from among us, and left a name for the admiration of who knew him. His friends may fondly indulge the hope, that as the termination of his days approached-and the coming event cast its shadow before'-the light of Divine grace was shed abundantly upon him, and that he now reposes before that heavenly throne-which is all love—and we may not check the natural feelings of grateful hearts, and breathe forth in Christian charity — may he rest in peace! Catholic Herald.

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Indeed, on Feburary 25 1845, it does list the Barque Amelia having one J. A. Moore having died. (United States. Migration Records 1830–1845 | New Orleans. Migration Records 1830–1845) ("United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9T2-97Q8-4?view=index : May 30, 2025), image 564 of 702; United States. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Image Group Number: 007682522). This image claims it embarked from Trieste with Ship Master Gimory (both Messina and Trieste are cities in Italy, and all the other passengers are Italians, so I don't find this controversial — though they are basically on the other ends of the country).

Probably more usefully, it gives us a definitive date for his birth and death.

Birth: 1810-1811
Death: 10 April 1845

Moore was 34 at the time of his taking a picture of President Harrison. Unfortunately, there's no findagrave.com records for any Justus Moore born 1810 died 1845 (even +/- 10 years for both dates). I will try to find a copy of the Catholic Herald but I suspect it'll say the same thing and not something like "Before he passed, he proclaimed that the first photograph of a living president had been hidden away in a bank in Paris where the code is the Fibonacci sequence"

The Catholic Herald - Vol. XII No. 46 Thursday, November 14, 1844, Whole Number: 618.

I am also certain he wrote something called "Evils from Presbyterianism"

And also The Materialist