Background
John Plumbe, Jr. was born in Castle Caereinion, Powys, Wales in 1809, to John Plumbe and Frances Margaretta Atherton. The family moved to Philipsburg, Pennsylvania in 1821, and later to Dubuque, Iowa.
John Plumbe, Jr. was born in Castle Caereinion, Powys, Wales in 1809, to John Plumbe and Frances Margaretta Atherton. The family moved to Philipsburg, Pennsylvania in 1821, and later to Dubuque, Iowa.
He came to the United States in 1821 with his family, and after attending school and becoming a naturalized citizen he worked as an assistant on a railroad survey across the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania (1831-32). In 1832 Plumbe was appointed superintendent and manager of the railroad that stretched between Richmond, Virginia, and Roanoke, North Carolina. He migrated to the Wisconsin Territory in 1836 and became involved in land speculation, later owning a successful store in the town of Sinipee (1839) and becoming its postmaster. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1839 and established what may have been "the first permanent daguerreotype gallery in Washington, D.C.," according to Northlight Journal.
Plumbe introduced the chain-studio concept. By 1845 he had a main office in New York and branches in Boston, Saratoga Springs, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Alexandria, Petersburg, Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Dubuque and Newport. He even claimed to have branches in Liverpool and Paris. Financial reversals caused him to sell his photographic interests and head out for the gold rush of 1849 in California, but he moved back to Dubuque in 1856, and the next year took his life.
Throughout Plumbe's diverse career he was dedicated to promoting his idea of a transcontinental railroad. Having conceived it as early as 1836, he formally proposed the idea to Congress on March 24, 1838, and was granted a $2,000 appropriation for a survey. His plan failed, however, and he never received credit for being the first person to conceive of a railroad to the Pacific.
John Plumbe's view of the U.S. Capitol, half plate daguerreotype, circa early spring 1846.