Cook, George S. (?? - ??)

Although an orphan, George S. Cook, left his Connecticut birth place and traveled down the Mississipppi, to New Orleans where he was introduced to and became proficient in the newly developed process of 'daguerreotype' photography. By 1849 Cook had settled in Charleston, South Carolina and had established himself as a master of his craft.

With the approach of the Civil War now at hand, Cook's galleries in Chicago, Philadelphia, along with others throughout the south were now going to require quite a lot of his time, which he would not be able to give. He closed them all, and focused his full concentration on events in Charleston, South Carolina

Cook was kept busy photographing soldiers, forts, and copying military maps, and his business prospered during the Civil War. His outstanding series of photographs of Fort Sumter reveal its deterioration of the defiant fort as tons upon tons of federal iron turned this fort into rubble.

George Cook became very proficient in the newly developed process of daguerreotype photography prior to the Civil War. With the approach of the war at hand he closed all his galleries to concentrate all his energies in the city of Charleston, South Carolina.

One of the most extraordinary photographs taken, was that of a federal shell bursting inside Fort Sumter. This type of photo was extremely rare during the war.

Cook also took the first photograph of the ironclads in action when he climbed to the highest point of Fort Sumter, and got a picture of the Union monitors Weehawken, Montauk, and Passaic, firing on Fort Moultrie.

REF: EMAIL from Glenn Belcher (commander@inetone.net)