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
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.
Palmquist, Peter E. and Thomas R. Kailbourn, "Benecke, Robert (135-1903),"
Van Raveswaay, Charles, "Checklist of St. Louis Photographers, 1841-1865,"
"Photographic dry plate testing, Mr. Robert Benecke,"
"Spec.," Line etchings : a trip from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, via the Kansas Pacific Railway. Saint Louis: Woodward, Tiernan & Hale, 1875.
The Robert Benecke album was purchased by Everett L. DeGolyer, Jr. in 1969. The album was not in its original binding but had been rebound in buckram in the twentieth century. Because the album cover was not original, and the materials had conservation issues, the album was dis-bound. There are 62 plates in the Benecke set with the series title,
The collection is organized into 1 series:
Benecke, Robert and Benecke & Holke.
Gardner, Alexander.
Select images have been digitized
Collection is open for research use.
Permission to publish materials must be obtained from the Director of the DeGolyer Library.
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright authorization.
This collection is indexed under the following terms in the Southern Methodist University Libraries' online catalog. Researchers desiring related materials may search the catalog using these terms.
On the Kansas Pacific Railway, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.
Purchase, 1969.
The collection was received in an album rebound in buckram in the 20th century. The photographs had been numbered in their album order at a later date in pencil on the lower left corner of the mount. For conservation reasons, the album was subsequently dis-bound. The order of the photographs in the rebound album did not correspond with the caption numbers on the prints. The prints were reorganized in the photographer’s print number sequence on the photographs which also reflects the order in which the photographer made the images during the trip for the railroad in 1873 going from Kansas City, Missouri to Denver, Colorado.
Anne E. Peterson, 2010.
Lara Corazalla, 2010.