Tag: by Knox (David)

Wikipedia says: David Knox (1821–1895) was born in Renfrew, Scotland. In 1849, with wife Jane older brother John and John’s wife Elizabeth, machinist Knox emigrated to America, taking a machinist job in New Haven, Connecticut. Knox became a naturalized citizen on March 22, 1855, just five years after the tragic deaths of 28 year-old Jane and his 7-week-old son David. In 1856, David moved to Springfield, Ill., taking a job as a machinist for the Great Western Railroad. His home was just one block from the residence of Abraham Lincoln. Soon after, Knox relocated his family to Washington D.C. The first reference to Knox working at the Mathew B. Brady studio is a September 21, 1862 telegram sent from the Antietam battlefield by Alexander Gardner, addressed to “David Knox Brady Gallery”, Washington. Knox was likely trained there by Gardner in the use of a large format camera. Historians don’t know exactly when Knox left Brady’s employ to Join Alexander Gardner’s new competing firm. Returns for the June–July 1863 Draft Registration show Knox as a 42-year-old photographer, very near Gardner’s gallery. Four of Knox’s wartime negatives were included in “Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War.” He is probably best known for his iconic plate, “13 inch mortar Dictator, in front of Petersburg, Va.” Like his colleagues John Reekie and the Gardner brothers, Knox was an officer of the Washington D.C. Saint Andrews Society, a Scottish relief organization. On May 7–10, 1868 the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho, signed treaties at Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory which were attested to by “Alex. Gardner” and “David Knox” establishing that Knox was engaged there in picture taking with Gardner. In 1870 David Knox and his wife Marion moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where he had apparently finished with photography to pursue regular employment as a machinist. He became head of the Union Pacific Railroad machinist shops. David passed on November 24, 1895 and is buried with Marion at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Omaha, Nebraska.