Benecke, Robert

Robert Benecke (1835-1903) was born in Stiege, Germany. He attended the gymnasium in Blankenburg and volunteered for the army, 1854-55. While he was enlisted, he saw a display of daguerreotypes and ambrotypes that piqued his interest. Later, he briefly became a government forester, but immigrated to the United States with his family in 1856, and settled in Brunswick, Missouri. There he worked at a variety of jobs: farmer, cooper, piano tuner, and also taught languages at a local seminary. He then formed a partnership with Joseph Keyte who was a landscape painter, and E. Meier, a traveling daguerreotypist. After joining the firm, Benecke learned to make daguerreotypes and contributed articles to Henry Hunt Snelling’s Fine Art Journal . Benecke and Keyte advertised making ambrotypes and photographs, 1858-1859. When the partnership was dissolved, Snelling found Benecke a position as a daguerreotypist in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he lived for two years, but by 1860, Benecke was working in St. Louis. When the Civil War broke out, Benecke joined the 18th Regiment, Missouri Volunteers. After less than a year’s service, he sustained an eye injury and was discharged. He returned to St. Louis late in 1861, and soon after formed a partnership with Hermann E. Hoelke. They bought the Enoch Long Gallery on the southeast corner of Fourth and Market Streets, where they were known for "portraiture and viewing." Benecke married Mary Koenig in November, 1865. At the St. Louis Fairs in 1867 and 1868, the partners won first prize for the best stereographs and best photographic views. Their partnership was dissolved around 1869.

In late October 1873, Benecke traveled from Kansas City to Denver, commissioned by the Kansas Pacific Railway to photograph sites of interest for the company’s promotional use. He arrived in Denver mid-November having made approximately 100 negatives of towns, depots, landscapes, and rivers. These prints make up the bulk of the DeGolyer Library set of plates.

In 1870s Benecke became interested in photomechanical printing. In 1872, he began making artotypes and collotypes. In Germany in 1883, he learned zinc etching and photogravure. He also began to make his own photographic dry plates for use in his studio. Gustav Cramer, a St. Louis dry plate manufacturer, offered him a job as chemist and plant superintendent in 1886 where he served for many years. Benecke died November 3, 1903. He was survived by his widow, Mary Koenig Benecke and four children.

Sources:

Benecke Family Papers, 1816-1989, n.d. (C3825), Western Historical Manuscript Collection – Columbia. http://whmc.umsystem.edu/invent/desc-german.html

Palmquist, Peter E. and Thomas R. Kailbourn, "Benecke, Robert (135-1903)," Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide, a Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865 . Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005, pp. 102-104.

Van Raveswaay, Charles, "Checklist of St. Louis Photographers, 1841-1865," Bulletin Missouri Historical Society, v. 10, October, 1953, pp. 52-53.

Philadelphia Photographer, v. 11, May 1874, p. 160, mentions some of Benecke’s 8 x 10-inch photographs for the Kansas Pacific Railway were received there.

"Photographic dry plate testing, Mr. Robert Benecke," Science, v. 11, Jan.-June, 1900, p. 352.

"Spec.," Line etchings : a trip from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, via the Kansas Pacific Railway. Saint Louis: Woodward, Tiernan & Hale, 1875.

St. Louis Photographer v. 1 no. 1 (Jan. 1883), frontispiece artotype portrait of John H. Fitzgibbon by Benecke.