Joseph Henry Downing was born in Bristol, New Hampshire, Nov. 28, 1840, and died in Healdsburg, July 5, 1914. In 1857, after journeying across the Isthmus of Panama, Joseph, along with his parents, John and Mary Jane, brother Clarence and sister Ellen, arrived in Healdsburg. There Joseph assisted his father in the furniture, undertaking and coffin making business, until the 1860’s when he went east to study photography, which became a lifetime passion. He returned to Healdsburg, and opened a studio on Center Street on the Plaza. In addition to portrait work, Joseph traveled around Sonoma County in the 1870’s and 1880’s documenting the growing communities.

          J.H. Downing’s Photography Studio on Center Street, November 1873.

 Joseph Downing subsequently traveled professionally throughout Mexico, Central America, and many of the Pacific Coast states taking photographs. He, and his wife, Matilda, together had one daughter, Annette or “Nettie.” Later he became a photographic printer for the Risdon Iron Works in San Francisco for fifteen years, while his family resided in Oakland. Every day he crossed the Bay from Oakland, where he filed all the blue prints of parts and of ships which they built – as well as making the blue prints. Downing returned to Healdsburg to reside during his retirement around 1906. He is buried in the family plot in Oak Mound Cemetery.

Self-Portrait of Joseph H. Downing and wife Matilda camping on Fitch Mountain, May 1, 1873.

To view more photographs and information on Joseph H. Downing please come see the Museum’s current exhibit, “Seeing Double” – The Stereographic Photography of 19^th Century Healdsburg Photographer Joseph H. Downing.

The above was researched and written by Whitney Hopkins