Peter Britt Photo Gallery #1

Have you been enjoying Britt Festival’s fabulous summer season?  If you’re a Jacksonville resident you may know that the Festival grounds are part of the estate of Swiss-born Peter Britt, Oregon’s first photographer.  He arrived in Jacksonville in the fall of 1852 with a 2-wheeled cart of photographic equipment, a yoke of oxen, a mule, and $5 in his pocket.  He filed a donation land claim on acreage that is now the Festival grounds, the lower Britt gardens, and a portion of the Jacksonville Woodlands. 

Today we would call Britt a “Renaissance Man.” Not only did he photographically document a half century of Southern Oregon people and places, he is also credited with founding the region’s commercial orchard, wine, and ornamental horticulture industries. 

However, Britt is most famous for his photography.  After trying his hand at gold mining and running a pack train, he opened “P. Britt’s Photograph and Daguerreotype Room” in 1856 and people came from all parts of Southern Oregon to have their photographs taken.  Britt became the best-known and most popular photographer in the southwestern Oregon and northern California area, photographing almost all of the prominent citizens as well as farmers, miners, Chinese workers and Native Americans.

Britt may have been indiscriminate in terms of his subjects, but he did have an ego when it came to his work.  When ladies were displeased with their likeness and laid fault on the photographer, he is reported to have bluntly told them, “If you want a pretty picture, you must bring a pretty face.” Many of the pretty…and not so pretty… are depicted in his studio gallery shown here.