page_title: Peter Britt
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Peter Britt / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Peter Britt is one of the Pacific Northwest's most celebrated photographers. This self-portrait, probably taken in the 1860s, shows the stately Britt standing next to one of his first cameras, most likely a daguerreotype or wet plate model. His right hand holds a lens cap, which functioned as a shutter. Oregon Historical Society collections. Catalog Number: CN 000266
context_page_description: Peter Britt was a Swiss portrait painter and American pioneer photographer, meteorologist, accomplished horticulturist, an early settler and developer in the Rogue Valley of the Oregon Territory. Britt is considered as one of the Pacific Northwest's most celebrated photographers, as well as the "father of the grape industry" in Southern Oregon. His photos of Crater Lake were instrumental in creation of the Crater Lake National Park in 1902.
context_section_description: When Peter Britt was born in the town of Obstalden in the Swiss canton of Glarus, his family farmed land that had been in the family for centuries. Earning a living there as an itinerant portrait artist was difficult, but Peter pursued this until 1845, when he immigrated to the United States with his father Jacob Kaspar Britt, his brother Kaspar, and Kaspar's family. They settled with other Swiss emigres in Highland, Illinois. Portrait artists of the time were faced with competition from daguerreotype photographers, so Britt studied this new technology with John H. Fitzgibbon in St. Louis. Although Britt apparently opened his own studio in Highland in 1847 and operated it for five years, however no records to support that claim were ever located.
  Perhaps gold fever, or just wanderlust, took Peter Britt from Illinois to Oregon in 1852, following the completion of his naturalization process. Britt left Illinois with John Hug and two other Swiss men heading west on the Oregon Trail. Britt was elected captain of the wagon train, John was the wagon master, and the group made it to Grande Ronde Valley before the men insisted on no longer dealing with Britt's 300 pounds of photographic equipment. John Hug split the wagon train into two halves. At The Dalles, Oregon, John Hug and Britt chose an overland route to Portland, while the other two men chose the Columbia River route and arrived in Portland, Oregon, just 24 hours later. Finally, Britt, hearing news of the gold mining strike in Table Rock City (now Jacksonville, Oregon), left Portland alone for southern Oregon. According to Alan Clark Miller, he arrived to the gold-mining camp of Jacksonville with the two-wheeled cart, a yoke of oxen, a mule, and five dollars in his pocket.
  Britt built a log cabin in Jacksonville in November 1852, on land where he lived for the rest of his life. This log cabin no longer exists, but Southern Oregon University archeologists have recently determined the site of the cabin.
  Although Peter Britt brought his photographic equipment all the way from Illinois to Oregon for a photo studio, he first tried gold mining and mule packing in order to earn a living. Altogether, Britt was successful enough to send money back to his brother Kaspar in Illinois, build a frame house in 1854, give up the dangerous mule packing business in 1856 to concentrate on his photography business, and expand his home in 1859.
  According to Alan Clark Miller, Britt knew his future wife, Amalia Grob, in Switzerland, but her father would not allow them to marry because Peter Britt's occupation as an itinerant artist was too tenuous. Instead, Amalia married a relative, Kaspar Grob. Britt's brother Kaspar did marry Amalia's sister, though. When Mr. Grob died in 1861, Kaspar Britt contacted Peter. Miller states that Peter immediately sent Amalia funds to return to Switzerland if she wished, or to travel to Oregon and marry him. With her young son Jacob, Amalia traveled to New Orleans and around Cape Horn to San Francisco, then by steamer to Crescent City and finally by stage to the Applegate stop. Peter Britt met her there and they were married.
  Prior to Amalia's death in 1871, she and Peter had three children of their own, Emil, Arnold (who died as an infant) and Amalia Dorothea, known as Mollie. Emil, who also became a photographer, and Mollie remained in the Britt home their entire lives.
caption: Peter Britt, self-portrait, 1860s
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