Photographer A. T. Lyon (Albert T. Lyon), was born in Edgefield, South Carolina, in about 1837 – he was thirteen on the 1850 census, so I believe the 1840 date on his grave must be incorrect. He died on September 13, 1897 in Lumpkin (Stewart County), Georgia, and is buried there in the East Side Cemetery (Find a Grave).

Lyon was quite a traveler, an itinerant, and worked as a photographer from 1858 until his death, in at least seventeen Georgia cities and towns, possibly more. In spring and summer 1856, when he would have been about nineteen, Lyon traveled with photographer John Leigh (d. 1866) to Laurens and Clinton, South Carolina, to produce ambrotypes in their Ambrotype “car.” Leigh was Lyon’s brother-in-law, and had married Albert’s sister Sarah. In his birthplace of Edgefield, SC, in November 1856, he worked as A.T. Lyon & Co., and I assume Leigh was not with him.

Lyon came to Augusta, Georgia and worked for the firm of Tucker & Perkins from 1858 to possibly about 1861. John Leigh had worked with Isaac Tucker (born ca. 1825 ) in Augusta in 1850-51, and with both Tucker and J.W. (Jabez Whiting) Perkins (b. ca.1828, d. 1898) in 1851-1852, as Leigh, Tucker & Perkins. In April 1859, seemingly on behalf of Tucker & Perkins, A. T. Lyon bought James Bailey’s Tallahassee, Florida gallery, and there he advertised ambrotypes, and promised to soon introduce “the PHOTOGRAPH, both plain & colored.” (Tallahassee, FL Floridian and Journal 23 April 1859)

He served the Confederacy in 1862-1864, as a bugler, and later as Chief Musician, with the 62nd Georgia Cavalry and the 63rd Georgia Infantry. He continued to play and teach music and conduct brass bands throughout his career, particularly in the 1880s, and eventually he was known as Professor Lyon.

After the Civil War, he appeared in Washington, Georgia, working in April 1866, in a partnership known as Gray & Lyon. I have learned nothing about his partner Gray, but Lyon’s mother’s maiden name was Lydia Gray, so the two men may well be related, but I’ve yet to verify exactly how.

Gray & Lyon went on to the Georgia town of Cuthbert, and placed two advertisements in the Cuthbert Appeal on April 26, 1867. The one on page 2 (seen right) is directed to The Ladies:

The Ladies especially, should know they produce the finest cosmetic known — the PORCELAIN PICTURE, painting Nature as it should be, combining beauty, softness, and brilliancy.

The advertisement that appeared in the same issue of the Cuthbert Appeal on page 3, col. 2 appealed to the gentlemen, and is quite long and oh, what a description!

GRAY & LYON’S PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY. — Reader, have you ever had the “doldrums” and Imagined yourself a mere wait upon life’s ocean, without friends, without purpose, without hope, and, if your visage chance to appear in some unfriendly mirror, a shocking ugly fellow in the bargain, permit us to prescribe the remedy; go at once to the gallery of Gray & Lyon.

There, if you have “salt enough to save you,” if there be one line of beauty to redeem your unfortunate phiz, in other words, if your face was not rough hewn from the quarry of a turnip, take courage and despair not. These wizards of the sun, with a beam from the rosy god himself, will stereotype the good, and shade and tone down the bad in your outward man so adroitly, that a grin of satisfaction must overspread your lugubrious features, at the magic change. We do not hesitate to say that the photographs taken by those gentlemen, cannot be excelled in this country. We know, no artist at least in Macon or Atlanta can bear away the palm from them, either in the execution, finish, or price of their pictures.

Those whose lives are bound up in the loved ones who gladden their daily existence, should not fail to perpetuate their persons and lineaments, lest the “Grim Monster” in an instant blot them forever from their vision.

Delay not therefore to call and secure a good likeness at the rooms of Messrs. Gray & Lyon, before their Gallery is closed for the Season. 

It is interesting to note that the better known photographer A.J. Riddle was advertising his Macon studio on the same page this advert for Gray & Lyon appeared — Riddle is certainly among those Macon artists who Gray & Lyon believed could not “bear away the palm,” of this short-lived partnership!

By October 1867, A. T. Lyon was working alone, with no partner, in Milledgeville, Georgia, where he advertised “he charges less than Macon prices and his pictures cannot be excelled.” In 1869, he too was a Macon photographer, advertising “his work cannot be excelled in the State,” and he returned to Macon again to work from 1885 through August 1888.

Lyon continued his career in Georgia and in all, from 1858 to his death in 1897, he worked in Albany, Augusta, Bainbridge, Cuthbert, Dawson, Forysth, Greensboro, Lumpkin, Macon, Milledgeville, Perry, Quitman, Richland, Sandersville, Talbotton, Washington, and West Point.

I hope this was somewhat interesting to you. For more information on the firm of Tucker & Perklins, see if you can find a copy of the April 2023 Battlefield Photographer, which is in the Journal of the Center for Civil War Photography. This contains an excellent article (one of two) by photo historian Keith Brady called “Scenery of the South: Tucker & Perkins Capture 1860 Georgia in 3-D.” Mr. Brady was kind enough to include me in his Acknowledgements. This issue utilizes the Center’s red-cyan anaglyph 3-D glasses for several of the images used. Prior issues are online here, note that the 2022 issue also utliized the 3-D glasses, but you can also see the illustrations without them. I assume the 2023 issue will eventually be found in this listing. While you are in the CCWP site, see also their Online Exhibits as well as their Resources.

E. Lee Eltzroth and Hunting & Gathering, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material, without written permission from this blog’s author, is prohibited. With permission, excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to E. Lee Eltzroth and Hunting & Gathering

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