Creator Bio

Solomon Nunes Carvalho

1815–1897

Solomon Nunes Carvalho, the son of a prominent Sephardic family in Charleston, South Carolina, had a career as both a painter and a photographer. While he was a distinguished portraitist, he also painted other subjects including his childhood synagogue, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. In the 1840s, Carvalho made daguerreotypes, and in 1853 and 1854, he accompanied General John C. Fremont as the official photographer for an expedition through the territories of Kansas, Colorado, and Utah. Carvalho subsequently had studios in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston and was active in the Jewish communities of those cities.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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Self-Portrait

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Solomon Nunes Carvalho is thought to have made this daguerreotype self-portrait when he was already well trained in the art of photography. A few years after he made this portrait, in 1853 and 1854…

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Interior of the Beth Elohim Synagogue Charleston, South Carolina (Solomon Nunes Carvalho)

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The only image of the interior of the first synagogue of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, a congregation established in Charleston in 1749, is this picture, painted from memory by Solomon Nunes Carvalho. The…

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Portrait of Wakara

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Solomon Nunes Carvalho painted this portrait of Wakara (ca. 1808–1855) of the Timpanogos tribe (later chief of the Utah Indians) after returning from a trip to the territories of Kansas, Colorado, and…

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Travel Journal

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The River Jordan runs through the valley and empties into Great Salt Lake. The city is thirty miles from the Lake, and the valley is entirely surrounded with high mountains topped with snow, winter…
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Related Guide

Travel Writing, 1750–1880

The proliferation of the press and travel by steamship (and toward the end of the period, railroad) brought descriptions of far-flung parts of the world and reports about Jews living in them from one corner of the globe to another.

Painting of women seated at rows of desks sewing.
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Related Guide

Painters, Sculptors, and Photographers, 1750–1880

All over the world, Jewish art reflected the hybrid nature of Jewishness, including the material circumstances and cultural milieu of the larger environment. Individual artisans and artists selected and created according to their personal and Jewish experiences.