1855 Address Unknown, Lockport, New York.[1]
1858 231 Main Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1858 March 27. Milwaukee Daily Sentinel. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin.) March 27, 1858, Vol. XV, No. 73, P. 1.
Crapo’s Mammoth Daguerrean & Photographic Temple Of Art! At 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6, Goodrich & Tweedy’s Block, No. 231 Main Street, (One Door North of the Newhall House, First Floor, Up Stairs,) Is now open to the public. This is the largest Gallery in this city or the Great West, and has been arranged and furnished without regard to expense.
This is the only Gallery in this city where Daguerreotypes are made.
The Daguerreotype for a miniature, is now conceded by all the refined and cultivated, to Far Excel all other Styles of Pictures, In point of brilliancy and life-like beauty. These Pictures will not crack off like the Ambrotype, which will all crack off sooner or later. Experience has taught me that the Daguerreotype & Photograph Are the only desirable Picture.
Price of Daguerreotypes $2, and we pledge ourselves to Make Better Ones Than have ever been made in this city or the West, and having a Practical Experience of Fourteen Years In the business, we can do all we promise. Positively no cheap Daguerreotypes will be made, and none but the best will be allowed to leave the Gallery.
Photographic Department. Every style are made—from the Plain , the Cabinet and life size on Canvases, in Oil. The Cabinet and Life-Size Photographic Portraits Are painted by an Artist in the finest styles, which for beauty and life like appearance are Superior To Any Portrait Painting.
Old Daguerreotypes or Ambrotypes copied and enlarged to cabinet or life-size, and beautifully colored on short notice.
The Gallery and facilities for producing the best of work of Photographic Art, are the most complete and extensive in the West.
The public are invited to call and visit the Gallery.
Superior Ambrotypes Are made for those who wish them, and put up at Prices as low as any other Rooms in the City.
Remember that this is the only Gallery where good Daguerreotypes are made, and that the pictures will not fade or crack. R. P. Crapo. Milwaukee, March 24th,1858.
From the Hon. Washington Hunt, Ex-Governor of the State of New York: Lockport, Aug. 3d, 1857.
The bearer of this letter, Mr. R. P. Crapo, is about to visit the Western country. He is an Artist of great merit, and has gained a reputation for excellence in his profession. He is highly appreciated, moreover, as a gentleman of intelligence and sterling moral character. I desire to recommend him to the favorable regards of any friend of mine, whom he may meet in the course of his tour. Washington Hunt.
From the Lockport Daily Courier.
R. P. Crapo has disposed of his Daguerrean establishment in this place, and is about to remove to Milwaukee to engage in the same business. As an Artist Mr. C. has no superior, and he leaves in our midst as monuments of his talents, an array of pictures, which for tone, expression and finish have never been excelled in the Daguerrean or its concomitant arts, We commend him to the good people of Milwaukee as an upright and courteous gentleman, every way worthy of their confidence, and as possessing that mysterious power spoken of by the Poet when he says—
“O would some power the giftie g’e us,
To see ourselves as others see us.”
From the Lockport Daily Advertiser.
R. P. Crapo, the Daguerrean artist, having sold his business in this village, leaves here in a day or two for Milwaukee, where he is to establish himself in the wholesale trade in Daguerrean apparatus, chemicals, &c. Mr. C. has been here for some years, and as an artist leaves a reputation inferior to none and superior to most. Among business men he stands A No. 1. His name is familiar all over the country, and whenever his artistic labors are examined he is sure to be praised.
Advertisement ran from March 27 to April 2, 1858.
1858 March 30. Milwaukee Daily Sentinel. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin.) March 30, 1858, Vol. XV, No. 75, P. 2.
New Picture Gallery.—Mr. R. P. Crapo, a meritorious artist, and an affable gentleman, late of Lockport, N. Y., has taken up his abode in our city, and established an extensive daguerrian and photographic gallery in Goodrich & Tweedy’s new block on Main Street, North of the Newhall House. Mr. Crapo’s gallery is one of the largest in the Western country, and it is admirably arranged too, and elegantly fitted up and furnished. His rooms occupy the whole side of the building, and a ladies sitting room adjoins the gallery, off of which is a little dressing room for the convenience of the fair ones who may desire to arrange their toilets before having their pictures taken.—As to Mr. Crapo’s skill as an artist, the fine pictures which adorn the walls of his ”Temple of Art, on the best possible evidence. In connection with his picture gallery, Mr. Crapo, has a wholesale department, in which he has a large stock of materials of every variety to supply artists throughout the State. Mr. Crapo comes amongst us highly recommended and we do not doubt that his merits will be appreciated.
1858 March 31. Milwaukee Daily Sentinel. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin.) March 31, 1858, Vol. XV, No. 76, P. 1.
Credit To Whom It Is Due—In speaking of Mr. Crapo’s elegant daguerrean gallery yesterday, we neglected to say that the decorating, paperhanging &c., which set off this “temple of art” to so much advantage, was done by Messrs. J. J. McGrath & Co., of Wisconsin street…
1858 October 2. Cleveland Morning Leader. (Cleveland, Ohio.) October 2, 1858, Vol. 12, No. 237, P. 2.
Fire in Milwaukee.—The daguerrean rooms of Mr. Crapo, on the second floor of Mr. Goodrich’s building, adjoining the Newhall House, took fire Sunday night from spontaneous combustion of chemicals, and resulted in a loss of $8,000 to Mr. Crapo, and $3,000 to Mr. Goodrich.
[1] Date from Craig’s Daguerreian Registry.
