Percy Claude Byron

Perciful Claude Byron (September 21, 1878 – June 9, 1959) was an English photographer at the Byron Company in Manhattan.[1][2][3] Percy was "the premier maritime photography of his generation".[4]

Percy Claude Byron
Born	(1878-09-21)September 21, 1878 Nottingham, England
Died	June 9, 1959(1959-06-09) (aged 80) Cranford, New Jersey
Employer	Byron Company
Children	Joseph M. Byron Grace Byron Murtaugh Elizabeth Byron Luce
Parent(s)	Joseph Byron
Relatives	Gustave May (brother in-law)

Biography

His father, Joseph Byron, was born in England in 1847 and opened the Byron Company in Manhattan in 1892. Perciful Claude Byron was born on September 21, 1878 in England.[5] In 1935 he was the official photographer for the maiden voyage of the SS Normandie.[6] Percy was born in 1878 in Nottingham, England.[3] Since 1917 he specialized in maritime photography while he lived on Staten Island.[5][7] In 1942 he closed the family studio because of World War II. He then went to work for the Essex Art Engraving Company of Newark, New Jersey until he retired in December 1958 because of his ill health.[7] He died in 1959 in Cranford, New Jersey.[1][7]

Publication

• Byron, Percy Claude (1958). Once Upon a City: New York from 1890 to 1910. Macmillan Publishers.

Archive

• 22,000 photos at the Museum of the City of New York between 1890 and 1942.[8] The collection was donated by Percy Claude Byron in 1942.[7]

References

1. Macmillan Biographical Encyclopedia of Photographic Artists & Innovators. Macmillan Publishers. 1983. ISBN 0-02-517500-9. Percy Claude Byron. Photographer. Born in Nottingham-on-the-Trent, England, in 1879, Byron died in Cranford, New Jersey, on June 10, 1959. ...
2. "Percy Claude Byron". Luminous Lint. Retrieved 2009-02-12. Born: Percy Claude Byron. Dates: 1879 - 1959. Born: England, Nottingham. Active: US. Gender: Male. Son of Joseph Byron who was a pioneer of stage ...
3. "Byron Photography". Byron Photography. Retrieved 2009-02-10. Founded by Joseph Byron (1847-1923), the son of an English commercial photographer, the Byron Company of New York specialized at first in making still photographs of theatrical productions and later, under the leadership of Joseph's son Percy (1878-1959), in photographing ships, especially big ocean liners. Together, this father and son team documented the turn of the century in New York City.
4. "Joseph Byron". University of South Carolina. Retrieved 2009-02-10. He loved New York's docks and instilled this love in Percy, who became the premier maritime photography of his generation.
5. "Percy Claude Byron in the World War I draft registration". Selective Service. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
6. "The Apple". New York Daily News. May 17, 1999. Retrieved 2009-02-12. The Byron family came to New York from England in 1888. Once here, Joseph Byron began taking photos for newspapers and doing other freelance projects before opening his own studio in 1892. ... His son Percy became interested in ocean liners, cultivating the crews of the great ships the way his father had done with theater people, and was made the official photographer of the maiden voyage of the legendary Normandie in 1935. Several of his images are in the show.
7. "Percy Byron Dies. Photographer, 80. Recorder of Turn-of-Century New York Scenes Aided in 'Once Upon a City'". New York Times. July 11, 1959. It stood then either for Joseph Byron, the father, or Percy Byron, the son. ... Since 1917, Mr. Byron had made the photography of ships his specialty. ...
8. "Byron Company Collection On Line". Museum of the City of New York. Archived from the original on 2009-01-29. Retrieved 2009-02-10. Museum of the City of New York: Byron Company Collection On Line. This database contains digital images and descriptive information about individual works in the Byron Collection. The collection consists of over 22,000 photographs of New York City and its environs taken by the Byron Company between 1890 and 1942.