Verkin Photo Company

The Verkin Photo Company was located in the city of Galveston, Texas, but also conducted business in the surrounding area including Texas City, and parts of East Texas. Photographers included Paul Verkin (1862-ca.1928) and his three sons: Paul Roland Verkin (1891-1958), Mulvin V. Verkin (1887-ca. 1946), and Louis M. Verkin (1893-ca. 1950). Paul Verkin senior was originally from Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1876 at the age of fourteen. It is unclear what precise date Paul Verkin senior began his photography company. Paul Roland Verkin, the middle son, had a few clerical jobs before joining his father in the photography business in 1913. He served as an office boy for Dr. A. A. Dyer from 1906-1907, was a clerk in the second vice-president’s office of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway from 1908-1909 and also served as a clerk in the railroad’s passenger depot from 1909-1910. By 1913, he had joined the family business. It is unclear when the two other sons, Louis and Mulvin, became photographers, but they had both left the business and pursued other occupations by 1923.

From the guide to the Verkin Photo Company Collection, 1900-1945, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)