Henry Jotham Newton was born on February 9, 1823 in Hartleton, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the younger son of Dr. Jotham and Harriet (Wood) Newton, both originally of Connecticut. When the father, a young physician of promise, died within a year of his son's birth, the mother returned to her father's home in Somers, Connecticut.
Henry was sent to school there and afterwards finished at the Literary Institute of Suffield. He was then apprenticed for four years to Whittlesey Brothers, piano-makers of Salem, Connecticut. His progress was so rapid that in three years he became a member of the firm.
In 1849 Newton went to New York City, where he associated himself with Ferdinand Lighte in the piano business. In 1853 William B. Bradbury and his brother Edward G. Bradbury also became partners, and the firm Lighte, Newton & Bradbury soon won a leading place in the trade. In 1858 Newton retired with a competency, which he invested so judiciously in New York City real estate that he died a millionaire.
Except for the attention which his real-estate holdings required and for his presidency after 1884 of the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company, a successful business run chiefly by his son and son-in-law, he was free for the rest of his life to devote himself to his various hobbies. The chief of these was photography.
His early steps in the art were taken under the guidance of Charles A. Seely, publisher of the American Journal of Photography. The top floor of Newton's home at 128 West 43rd St. soon became an amateur's photographic laboratory as he experimented with different kinds of emulsions, developing solutions, washes, and sensitized papers, in different processes and under varying conditions. The history of photography in this period is confused, and there were so many workers in the field that his exact contributions are difficult to determine.
His findings were usually presented orally at the meetings of the American Photographical Society, and are merely referred to, or summarized, in the reports in the American Journal of Photography of that society's meetings. He was long treasurer of the organization, which in 1867 became the Photographical Section of the American Institute of the City of New York, and after 1873 served as its chairman.
A scientific interest in spirit photography led Newton to study the subject of Spiritualism, and he spent much time and money in the investigation of various mediums. He exposed a number of them, including the famous Etta Roberts, by apparatus and tests which he originated.
He was trustee and, for the last twenty years of his life, president of the First Society of Spiritualists in New York, the society benefiting greatly from his scientific support and from his generous donations.
Newton was run down by a street car during an evening rush hour as he was crossing Broadway between 22nd and 23rd Streets, then "the most dangerous spot in New York. "
Newton experimented with the use of various alkalis in developing dry plates. He was also a pioneer in the preparation of ready-sensitized paper, and is credited with working out the paraffin paper process. He was instrumental in effecting the first scientific cremation of a human body in America, December 6, 1876, at the crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania, erected by F. J. Le Moyne, when, as an executor of the Baron de Palm's will, he carried out the Baron's last wishes in regard to the disposition of his body. The event was viewed by a number of scientists and received nation-wide newspaper publicity. It is significant that at Newton's death newspaper obituaries emphasized his Spiritualist and Theosophic connections, his more tangible contributions having been almost forgotten.
Newton became a convert to Spiritualism, and his faith was unshaken to the last.
He was also a founder of the Theosophical Society (1875), and its treasurer during the first few years. He always claimed that the society was organized for the scientific study of occultism, and after the publication by Madame Blavatsky of her Isis Unveiled (1877), which became the Bible of a new religion with teachings hostile to Spiritualism, he resigned in much bitterness.
In later years Newton's gray hair and long gray beard gave him somewhat the appearance of a self-appointed prophet.
His wife, Mary A. Gates of Wethersfield, Connecticut, whom he married in 1850, was an accomplished musician, a woman of culture and social charm, who encouraged her husband's unorthodox interests. They entertained frequently, and were members of many organizations. Besides his wife, a son and two daughters survived him.
