ROSS & ORMSBY was a Petaluma photography studio operated by George Colvaine Ross (born February 12, 1832, Edinburgh, Scotland; died 1893, Petaluma, California) and Elon D. Ormsby (died March 6, 1895, Oakland, California). For information on George Ross, see his separate entry on this website: George Colvaine Ross. According to his obituary, Elon D. Ormsby arrived in San Francisco in 1866, moved to Petaluma and then Stockton, finally settling in Oakland in 1877 establishing his studio at 1055 Broadway. In Ross & Ormsby’s first Petaluma advertisement published May 20, 1869, Ormsby was touted as a former employee of the celebrated gallery of Bradley & Rulofson in San Francisco. An Oakland Tribune announcement referring to Ormsby and repeatedly published in January and February 1883, stated, “Oakland can boast of possessing the finest portrait photographer in America, as is proven by the Committee in the National competition recently held in Philadelphia.”
Petaluma Photography Studio: The Ross & Ormsby studio was located, “At Ross’ old gallery, Main Street, two doors above the Wickersham + Co’s bank”. Ross, already an established portrait photographer in Petaluma, renamed his studio, placing his new partner’s name after his own.
Active in Petaluma: The Ross & Ormsby studio was first advertised in the Petaluma Weekly Argus on May 20, 1869. Exactly when Ross & Ormsby was terminated has not been determined. The last advertisement for the studio in a Petaluma paper appeared on June 11, 1870, and the Stockton Daily Evening Herald reported on August 2, 1870 that Ormsby had set up a gallery on El Dorado Street. It is notable that the Ross & Ormsby carte de visite portrait of Charles Austin Eastman in this collection has a date of 1871 on its back side. This may be misleading; it may simply have been the result of Ross exhausting previously printed card inventory.
Bibliography: Carl Mautz, Biographies of Western Photographers, A Reference Guide to Photographers Working in the 19th Century American West, Expanded and Revised Edition, 2018, p. 163; Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West, Stanford University Press, 2000, pp. 461 column 2; https://digital.sonomalibrary.org/about/photographers; Petaluma Weekly Argus, May 20, 1869, p.2; Sonoma Democrat, June 12, 1869, p.5, column 3; Petaluma Weekly Argus, June 11, 1870, p. 3; Daily Evening Herald (Stockton, CA), August 2, 1870, p. 3; Oakland Tribune, Jan. 16, 1883, p. 1; Oakland Tribune, March 6, 1895, p.3.
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