Elias Goldensky (1867-1943) was a prominent portrait photographer in Philadelphia. See my article, "Elias Goldensky: Wizard of Photography," published in Pennsylvania History, 64:2, available for sale at this link under the following listing:
149. Ries, Linda A., ed. History of Photography in Pennsylvania. Special Issue of Pennsylvania History, 64:2 (Spring 1997). [Includes articles on Marcus Aurelius Root, Francis L. Cooper (amateur) , early Pittsburgh photographers, John F. Nice, Elias Goldensky, Thomas Eakins, early oil industry, Mifflin and Engle, Black daguerreotypist Glenalvin J. Goodridge, Julius Sachse, and the Raymond Holland Collection. Winner of the 1997 MARAC Arline Custer Award for publications.] Signed by one of the authors, Gary Saretzky. 356pp. $20.
A pdf file at http://dpubs.libraries.psu.edu
is also available for this article, although the photographic illustrations are much better in the original.
A list of sources is provided below for Goldensky archival materials and photographs, to which additions are made as they are found. If the reader can add to the list, I would appreciate receiving the information. See also my Goldensky bibliography , not published with that article but presented here as an aid to further research.
Above is a rare color portrait by Goldensky made in 1916. The original is in the George Eastman House. See links below for other examples of Goldensky's work.
INSTITUTIONS WITH COLLECTIONS ABOUT GOLDENSKY
International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House
Library Company of Philadelphia
Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies
Temple University Archives (clipping only)
University of Rochester (photograph of Goldensky by Minya-Diez Durhkoop in the J.E. Mock Papers, Box 1, Folder 17)
INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY GOLDENSKY
Number of prints known indicated in parentheses.
I. Institutions
Major Collection:
International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House (1,509 prints including portraits of Goldensky by others; also negatives)
Other Institutional Collections:
Bryn Mawr College, Special Collections (7)
Chester County (Pennsylvania) Historical Society (9)
College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Historical Collections of (2 of Dr. William W. Keen, also 3 copies in Thomas Jefferson University Archives)
Historical Society of Pennsylvania (2)
Jewish Historical Society of Maryland (3)
Library Company of Philadelphia (about 20), including Goldensky's portrait of his wife, Nettie, ca. 1895
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (9), including Franklin Delano Roosevelt
National Museum of America History, Division of Photographic History (2)
New Orleans Museum of Art (1)
Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Image Collection, Philadelphia (Group portrait of Pennsylvania Hospital nursing students) (1)
Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies (at least 4)
Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, PA (1 negative, 3 prints)
Rosenbach Museum, Philadephia (1)
Smith College of Art
Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries, Philadelphia (1)
Temple University, Samuel Paley Library, Rare Books and Special Collections
Temple University, Samuel Paley Library, Urban Archives (12)
University of California, Riverside- Sadakichi Hartmann Papers (4 copy negatives)
University of Rochester, Rush Rhees Library: portrait of Goldensky by Minya Diez-Duhrkoop in the Joseph Ernest Mock Papers.
University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center: portrait of Leonidas Warren Payne (1873-1945)
University of Washington Libraries, J. Willis Sayre Photograph Collection: portrait of Sarah Cowell Le Moyne, actress
Westtown School, Westtown, PA (23)
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York (2)
II. Private Collections
Ellen Golden (Elias' granddaughter), Brooklyn, NY (3)
Mrs. Allen Lewis Feinstein, Phoenix, AZ (6) - (in album of Dr. and Mrs. Charles Spivak)
Gary D. Saretzky :
Portrait of Jules Falk, violinist, signed in 1919 by Falk (note Goldensky monogram)
Portrait of Jules Falk with his Stradivarius, 1919, signed 1920 by Falk.
Eli Rosenbaum, son of Morris Rosenbaum, Philadelphia banker , 1906
Archie Rosenbaum, son of Morris Rosenbaum, early 1900s
Verso of Archie Rosenbaum photo
Cabinet card of four children, ca. 1900 (note Civil War kepi)
Cabinet card of infant, ca. 1900 (note stop action)
Child with tricycle, ca. 1900
Cabinet card of girl looking at photo, ca. 1900
Elderly gentleman with beard, 1919 (possibly Sydney George Fisher (1856-1927)
Finely dressed young woman, 1911
Reginald Wright Kauffman, August 27, 1912, journalist who wrote The House of Bondage, a book about prostitution highly praised by Emma Goldman in her essay, "The Traffic in Women." This photo apparently was sent on Nov. 13, 1912 by Kauffman to a Miss Marshall, in thanks for her interview with him that had been published. Goldensky's monogram, damaged by a fingerprint, may be seen faintly near the right edge a little below the middle of the photo. The photo is stamped on the back, "Please credit Elias Goldensky, 1705 Chestnut St., Phila., Pa." and notations suggest it was used for a publication, as does the glossy paper the photo is printed on, quite unlike Goldensky's art photographs.
Margaret Harrington, 1897
Anna Tolochko, 1896 (back of cabinet card inscribed from Anna to Bertha, Sept. 22, 1896)
Caroline Rosenberger (wife of Judge Emil Rosenberger)
Henry H. Donaldson, 1918. Born in 1857, Donaldson, according to the APA Historical web site, was "a prominent neurologist whose thorough studies of the brain were published as a book, The Brain, in 1895. At the Wistar Institute, Donaldson introduced the albino rat as an experimental subject and developed the Wistar rat strain later used in many psychological studies." His journal articles included, "On the Relation of Neurology to Psychology," American Journal of Psychology, Volume 1, No. 2 (Feb. 1888). He died in 1938.
On October 17,1935, Goldensky was honored at a dinner in Harrisburg, PA, given by the Professional Photographer's Association of Pennsylvania, which gave him a certificate signed by the officers that is now in the collection of Ellen Golden, Goldensk's granddaughter. Before the certificate was signed, a photographic copy was made of it and retained by the Association's President, J.B. Schriever. This photographic copy was obtained indirectly from Schriever's estate.
Rev. John Watson, D.D., the Scottish divine who wrote under the name Ian Maclaren, 1907. Platinum print. Maclaren was a member of the literary movement called the Kailyard School (1888-1896). His first books, Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush (1894), which sold more than 750,000 copies, and The Days of Auld Lang Syne (1895), led to his being invited for a whirlwind lecture tour to the United States in the 1890s. He returned in 1907, where Goldensky made this portrait in early February (he mentioned having his portrait taken in a letter to his son on Feb. 14, reproduced in his posthumous biography by W. Robertson Nicoll in 1908). Farther along his tour, Watson became ill and died in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, in May of that year. Not visible in the scan is Maclaren's signature and Goldensky's blind stamp. The image also has a copyright blind stamp, C. Houston Goudiss, 1907. The connection among Goudiss, Maclaren, and Goldensky is unknown but this Goudiss is probably the Charles Houston Goudiss (b. 1880) who later wrote articles about vitamins; perhaps he was Maclaren's tour manager.
Leopold Stokowski, Conductor, Philadelphia Orchestra (1882-1977), two 8x10 silver gelatin portraits with dramatic lighting, one frontal and one in profile, ca. 1923. Stokowski was very pleased with these photographs and there is an order for them in the Goldensky Papers at the George Eastman House. With copyright notice and Goldensky blind stamp, lower right corner. On the verso are two Goldensky rubber stamps regarding credit and copyright and a rubber stamp reading "Leopold Stokowski Conductor of the Philadephia Orchestra." The frontal view is discussed and reproduced in my article about Goldensky in Pennsylvania History, Spring 1977, page 249, courtesy of the George Eastman House, which owns a print from the same negative.
Max Pom (or Pon?), 1938. Inscribed to Virginia MacWalters, opera singer.
Mother and two photographs of her son, 1911 and 1912.
Wedding Couple, ca. 1900, mounted on card with 270 S. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, address.
Girl with flower, cabinet card, ca. 1898. Verso.
Unidentified well -dressed woman, ca. 1900, mounted on thin card blindstamped, "Goldensky Portraits Philadelphia," negative number 14476 on verso in pencil.
Young woman, verso imprint Goldensky, 1705 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, early 1920s.
Four boys in uniform, c. 1900, 270 S. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, address.
Young man in uniform, 1914.
***** end of Saretzky collection listings
Eleanor Sladkin Schlank, Lansdale, PA (about 50)
Alice (Mrs. Louis) Sipley, Philadelphia (1?)
Unknown [ex-Charles Isaacs, Philadelphia] (1)
Unknown [ex-Maxwell Whiteman, Philadephia (deceased)]. Portrait of laryngologist Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen (1838-1927), reproduced in Traditions in Transition: Jewish Culture in Philadelphia, 1840-1940, edited by Gail F. Stern, Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, 1989, p. 75. The photo is dated "ca. 1884," which is too early since Goldensky didn't emigrate to America until 1891 and didn't start his own business until 1895. Judging by Solis-Cohen's appearance, a date of about 1910 is more likely.
Unknown. Lithographic? portrait of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, drawn by Albert Rosenthal, after a photo by Goldensky, assisted by his son Milton, taken at Hyde Park.
Brian Pohanka, Alexandria, Virginia (portrait of Mortimer Park Crane)
Richard T. Rosenthal, Philadelphia (rtrphoto@philly.infi.net) (portrait of a man in a uniform, available for sale)
Ann-Marie Rose, Hager City, Wisconsin (Woman with hat, 1914)
Details about the above available by contacting
Gary Saretzky at saretzky@comcast.net
Last update: November 15, 2007
