A flyer regarding James Buchan’s business appears in The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera at Winterthur Library in Delaware: “Trade price list of carbolic soaps and saponaceous compounds, 1871, from James Buchan & Co., sold by Bowman & Blewett, New York City” and, in fact, it is in this business context that James Buchan appears in the Delaware County Biographical Review, in the section devoted to Mrs. Sarah Rich: “Charlotte and Rachel [Rich] are both widows in New York City, the former having married William Patterson, and the latter Mr. Buchan, of the firm above mentioned.”

The Delaware County Biographical Review: “After attending the district school, Stephen [Rich] went to New York City when he was eighteen, and found work with James Buchan & Co., manufacturers of soap and candles.”

Federal census records tell us that James Buchan was born in Scotland in 1812 or 1813. He appears in the 1850 census in New York City as a chair maker. In 1870 James is listed as a merchant living in Westchester County, NY, and in 1880 as a manufacturer of soap and candles.

James first married Jane McClure in New York City on 10 May 1839 and had by her: Robert, born about 1839 (his picture is also in Hannah’s picture album); Hannah (later Ogilvie), born sometime between 1842 and 1844; Mary O, born about 1844; and Thomas R., born about 1847. It is presumed that Jane died not long after the birth of their last child and that James married Rachel Rich in about 1848 or 1849. They were enumerated in the 1850 census residing in New York City with the children of James' first wife and what would appear to be their first child, James, who was born about 1850 and listed as six months old at the time the census was taken.

Not located again until 1870, the family was then residing in Westchester Co., New York. Listed as a merchant, James' household included Rachel age 50; Mary age 25, Sarah age 16; Annie age 15; Stephen age 11; and John age 8. The household also included their widowed daughter Hannah Ogilvie and her two children James and Jane along with five domestic servants from Ireland. Living next door to them was son Robert, also listed as a merchant who was age 30, Sophie age 27, and young Rachel age two, asl well as three domestic servants.

Their daughter Hannah was also enumerated a couple weeks later residing in New York City with her two brothers: Thomas, who was listed as a 23 year-old candle maker and James, a 20 year-old clerk.

An extensive accounting of the Buchan household includes James Buchan’s wife, Rachel Rich, who was a daughter of Stephen Altgelt Rich and Jane Oliver Rich, both of whose pictures also appear in this album. This 1880 Census taken in Westchester, New York, enumerates a large household, including Hannah Ogilbie, their widowed daughter of 36, her profession given as “Lady”; their son James Buchan, 30, a merchant; daughter Sarah, 26, “at home”; another daughter, Annie, 24, “at home”; son Stephen R[ich?] Buchan, 21, a clerk; daughter Johannah R. Buchan, 18 and “at home”; grandson James Buchan, 16 and a clerk; and granddaughter Jane Buchan, 13, “at school.” The enumeration also lists three servants, all of Irish extraction: Ann O’Brien, age 40; Hannah Shea, 28; and Mary Fitzgerald, 18.

About the photographer: James Buchan’s portrait (along with several others in Hannah Rich’s photograph album) was taken by Abraham Bogardus, without doubt one of the brightest luminaries of early photography. (See his imposing photographic portrait on the Picture History site. Craig's Daguerreian Registry tells us Bogardus was born 29 November 1822 in Dutchess County, NY, to a family of old Dutch settlers, the first of whom arrived in 1633. Bogardus was employed in the late 1830s as a clerk in a dry goods store, and in 1845 exhibited a painting at the American Institute.

It was around 1845 that Bogardus learned the daguerreotype process from George W. Prosch of New York City. In 1846 Bogardus opened a daguerreian gallery at 363 Broadway, New York City, at the corner of Barclay and Greenwich Streets. After opening a variety of studios in a variety of locations both in New York and in New Jersey, in 1851 Bogardus relocated his New York City gallery to 229 Greenwich Street; in 1862 he moved once again, this time to back to 363 Broadway. See the accompanying map.

In addition to taking thousands of small photographs called cartes-de-visite, one of the most interesting enterprises in which Bogardus engaged was his effort—with PT Barnum of circus fame—to discredit the growing craze for “spirit photography” which began in 1862.

As the website for the Museum of Hoaxes describes it, spirit photography got its start when William Mumler made what he claimed was the first “spirit photograph.” His asserted that departed spirits could imprint their images on photographic materials: the “spirits” appeared as faint, ghostly images besides the living subjects.

Spirit photography appealed to bereaved families during and after the Civil War. It also gathered its share of detractors, most notable among them PT Barnum, the famous showman. Barnum felt spirit photographers were taking advantage of those whose judgement was clouded by grief.

In April 1869, the Museum of Hoaxes site tells us, William Mumler was brought to trial for fraud. Abraham Bogardus testified at Mumler's 1869 court hearing that he, Bogardus, belonged to the National Photographic Association, which had among its goals "putting down any humbug we could discover." Barnum, too, volunteered to testify against Mumler, and to do so he asked Abraham Bogardus, as a well-known and respectable photographer, to prepare a spirit image of Abraham Lincoln floating behind Barnum's right shoulder. Barnum wanted to demonstrate that spirit photographs could be easily manufactured by any competent photographer.

At the trial Barnum made a point to differentiate between his own "humbugs" and those of the spirit photographers. He argued that despite his reputation for misleading the public, “I have never been in any humbug business where I did not give value for the money.”

A riveting blow-by-blow account of precisely how the “Sting” operation against Mumler was set up and executed, with Bogardus’ and Barnum’s assistance, appears in Michael Leja’s Looking Askance: Skepticism and American Art from Eakins to Duchamp.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, the sensational public unmasking of this photographic fraud, Bogardus became the first president of the National Photographic Association, a position he held for many years. For more about Abraham Bogardus, see his article, The Daguerreotype, published in 1893. Some of Bogardus’ photographic works include: Actress in a Snowy Scene, “Keep this as your guide to get Fine Photographs", a Picture of Tom Thumb and Wife, a gallery of cartes-de-visite in the archives of the New Jersey Department of State, a trio of sisters, and several pictures at the University of Louisville photographic archives.

Abraham Bogardus died in 1908.