Cullen Channing Packard (1840-1898)

Portraitist and Shutter Inventor

One of Kalamazoo’s most prolific photographers during the late 19th century was Cullen C. Packard. Packard’s photography studio prospered during an important period in Kalamazoo’s commercial and social development; a time when Kalamazoo was making a name for itself because of the various products, industries and inventions being produced.

Born in Cummington, Massachusetts to Royal and Mercy Packard, the young Cullen enlisted in the Union infantry during the U.S. Civil War. His military draft registration lists his occupation as a “dentist.” At the conclusion of the war, Packard set off for Kalamazoo, endeavoring to sell the camera shutters that he would later patent in 1885. While his local contemporaries Wallace S. White and Schuyler C. Baldwin shot both portraits and cityscapes, Packard focused mostly on the portrait, selling carte de visites and cabinet cards to those who could afford to pose for him. The majority of Packard’s images are of men, women and children, from their torsos upward, though often his portraits of children included chairs or background furniture. His photographs perfectly capture a portion of Victorian Kalamazoo, its clothing and hairstyles. Beginning in the early 1890s, Packard went into business with Milton Vosburg and Lucelle Strait. The firm manufactured brass goods and operated a factory on Portage Street.

Packard, a veteran, was a member of the local chapter of G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) and the Royal Arcanum. He married Mary Caryl in 1872. The couple had two children, Belle and Willie. He and his family resided at 527 W. Cedar Street. Packard died on 31 May of a self-inflicted gunshot in 1898. The suicide note left behind suggests that his despair may have been in some part related to a legal dispute with the E. and H.T. Anthony Company, a New York-based firm that manufactured camera supplies. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery.

Commercial Timeline

• 1867-1868, Partner of M.H. Porter in gallery at 137 Main Street
• 1872, 1883, Operated studio at 103 Main Street
• 1883, Moved to 120 E. Main Street
• 1885, Patent for the Packard Shutter
• 1897, Manufactured camera shutters and specialized in the penny photograph, the copying of daguerreotypes and producing large photographs

Article written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, September 2024