Gentile, Carlo^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]}

1835 - 1893  (58 years)

• Name	Gentile, Carlo
  	VARIANT NAME: Gentile, Charles.
  Birth	1835	Naples, Italy   [14]
  Gender	Male
  Where Active (Non-Specific Address)	Nov? 1864-Dec 1864	New Westminster, BC
  	Itinerant
  Business Address/Year	Oct 1863-May 1866	Victoria, BC
  	Address: Fort St. (N. side at Government) Robinson's Block, also known as Occidental Block Victoria, BC Canada
  Business Address/Year	May-Aug 1866	Victoria, BC
  	Address: Government St. (W. side near View St.) next door to Theatre Photographic Gallery Victoria, BC Canada
  Where Active (Non-Specific Address)	1870s-1893	Chicago, IL
  Death	27 Oct 1893	Chicago, IL   [15]
  Association	Shakespeare, Noah (Relationship: Employee)
  Association	Gentile's Photographic Gallery (Relationship: Proprietor)
  Person ID	I218	Camera Workers | G, vol. 1, 1858-1900
  Last Modified	30 May 2025

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Carlo (Charles) Gentile portrait. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons via Italiani di Frontiera (https://italianidifrontiera.com/); URL (accessed 21 Apr 2023): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carlo_Gentile.jpg
  		Carlo Gentile portrait, ca. 1864. The carte-de-visite depicts a young child who is seated.
  		Carlo Gentile studio portrait, ca. 1864. The carte-de-visite depicts a young child standing with his back against a balustrade prop and his right arm around an end post.

  
  

  Documents » Slide Show		Carlo Gentile cartouche on verso of carte-de-visite. Portrait of Dr. McNaughton Jones. Image courtesy of BC Archives, Visual Records catalogue no. HP003191 (item no. G-00597).
  		Carlo Gentile cartouche from verso of carte-de-visite. Portrait of Henry Pering Pellew Crease. Image courtesy of BC Archives, Visual Records catalogue no. HP024217 (item no. G-00590).
  		Carlo Gentile cartouche from verso of carte-de-visite. Portrait of Francis Joseph O'Reilly. Note the misspelling of Gentile. Image courtesy of BC Archives, Visual Records catalogue no. HP050155 (item no. G-00594).
  		Carlo Gentile news item, Daily Colonist, 18 May 1866, p. 3. An ad also appeared on p. 2 of this newspaper. The studio adjoined the south side of the Victoria Theatre Photographic Gallery and was also known as the Gallery Next Door.
  		Carlo Gentile's ad, New Westminster North Pacific Times, 14 Dec 1864, p. 2
  		Carlo Gentile's ad, New Westminster North Pacific Times, 11 Jan 1865 This ad originally appeared on or around 23 Dec 1864.
  		W.M. Ashman imprint, ca. 1870? From the verso of a carte-de-visite portrait of Kenneth McKenzie, Jr. BC Archives catalogue no. HP006438 (item no. A-02303).
  		W.M. Ashman imprint, between 1867 and early 1870s. On the verso of a carte-de-visite view of the R.E. Jackson residence, Swallowfield, on Richardson Street, Victoria, BC. BC Archives catalogue no. HP030027 (item no. B-01623).
  		Gentile's Photographic Gallery ad, Daily Colonist, 16 Aug 1866, p. 2. In this ad, which first appeared in the Colonist on 15 Aug 1866, Gentile gives notice that he has hired Noah Shakespeare to manage his studio.
  		Gentile and Company ads, Daily Colonist, 5 Aug 1863, p. 2. The bottom of these two ads shows Gentile's interest in photographic effects before he took up the craft.
  		Gentile's Photographic Gallery ad, Daily Colonist, 18 May 1866, p. 2. A news item appeared on p. 3 of this newspaper. The studio adjoined the south side of the Victoria Theatre Photographic Gallery and was also known as the Gallery Next Door.
  		Carlo Gentile's ad, Daily Colonist, 27 Oct 1866, p. 2. Posted via his agent, Thomas Allsop, Gentile lost his photographs of British Columbia and Puget Sound on his way south to California. It is not known if he ever recovered these valuable images.
  		Gentile's Photographic Gallery ad, Daily Colonist, 27 Feb 1867, p. 2. Announcing the presence of W.M. Ashman. The last located appearance of this ad in the Colonist was on 29 Apr 1867, p. 2.
  		Gentile's Photographic Gallery news item, Daily Colonist, 27 Feb 1867, p. 3. Publicizes the presence of W.M. Ashman.
  		Carlo Gentile's ad, Victoria Colonist, 21 Aug 1863, p. 2. This ad first appeared on 14 Aug 1863 and implies he was looking for photographic equipment for himself.
  		Carlo Gentile's ad, Victoria Colonist, 16 Mar 1865, p. 2. This was his second attempt in just over a year to sell his photo studio.
  		Carlo Gentile's ad, Victoria Colonist, 25 Feb 1864, p. 2. This was his first attempt to sell his photo studio. The ad, however, contains contradictory information, noting he intends on taking photographs full-time, but also offering to sell the lease of the studio at the back of his Fort St. store.
  		Gentile's Photographic Gallery's ad, Barkerville Cariboo Sentinel, 10 May 1866, p. 6. The Big Bend gold rush of 1865-1866 was a minor one; its location was along the Columbia River near today's Mica Creek.
  		Carlo Gentile's notice of arrival, Victoria Colonist, 18 Sep 1862, p. 3. He and an unidentified "lady" arrived in Victoria on 17 Sep 1862 from San Francisco via Portland on the steamer Oregon.
  		Carlo Gentile's ad, Victoria Colonist, 5 Mar 1864, p. 2. The ad describes some of the landscape photographs, as well as portraits of Indigenous men and women, including a Songhees couple known as King Freezy (Chee-ah-thluc) and his Queen. They were photographed by Gentile in his studio on 1 Feb 1864. Details of the event are recounted in Keddie (2003, p. 92-93).
  		Gentile's Photographic Gallery ad, Victoria Colonist, 31 Oct 1863, p. 2.
  		Gentile and Company ad, Victoria Colonist, 11 Jun 1863, p. 1. His store stock in this sale included photographs, photo albums, stereoscopic views and stereoscopes.
  		Gentile and Company news, Victoria Colonist, 18 Feb 1864, p. 3. About the sale of the lease for Robertson's Block, also known as Robinson's Block and the Occidental Block, which included the Occidental Saloon and Gentile and Company's store. A month after the sale, Frederick Dally took out a lease for a year on Gentile's old space. Richard Maynard's boot and shoe store later occupied the ground floor of the Occidental Block. This building stood where the ground-floor entrance to the Bay in the Bay Centre is in the 2000s.
  		Carlo Gentile imprint from verso of carte-de-visite, ca. 1864. The photograph on the BC Archives version depicts a logging scene with oxen and three men at Alberni on Vanouver Island in 1864 (BC Archives, Visual Records catalogue no. HP022915 [item no. A-08306]). This version is from a private collection and the photograph depicts a young child standing with his back against a balustrade prop and his right arm around an end post.
  		Carlo Gentile imprint from verso of carte-de-visite, ca. 1864. The photograph depicts a young child who is seated.
  		Carlo Gentile news, Victoria Daily Chronicle, 16 Aug 1864, p. 3. Gentile produced the first photographs from the minor Leech River Gold Rush on southern Vancouver Island. He also successfully prospected for gold at this location.
  		C. Gentile news, Victoria Colonist, 25 Jul 1866, p. 3. His visit to Nanaimo, Comox and the Cowichan Valley, where he gathered stereoscopic views, was about a month before Frederick Dally visited the same places on his trip aboard HMS Scout. Both photographers captured some of the same subject matter.
  		C. Gentile news, Victoria Daily Chronicle, 18 May 1866, p. 3. Announces the opening of his new studio on Government St. after he moved from the Occidental Block on the northeast corner of Fort and Government streets. The studio adjoined the south side of the Victoria Theatre Photographic Gallery and was also known as the Gallery Next Door. An ad also appeared on p. 2 of the newspaper.
  		Carlo Gentile and Noah Shakespeare news, Victoria Colonist, 15 Aug 1866, p. 3. Gentile hired Shakespeare while Gentile was away in Europe, a trip he apparently never completed due to the loss of his photographs on one of two Puget Sound vessels. Gentile's agent, Thomas Allsop, published a "lost" ad in the Colonist on 27 Oct 1866, p. 2.
  		C. Gentile ad, Victoria Vancouver Times, 15 Dec 1864, p. 1. This ad began running in Sep 1864.
  		Carlo Gentile news, Victoria Colonist, 28 Jun 1864, p. 3. While photographing in the Alberni area, Gentile discovered evidence of gold in a stream about two miles from Copper Mountain.
  		C. Gentile news, Victoria Colonist, 18 Jul 1865, p. 3. Gentile photographed the New Westminster and Victoria cricket clubs following their match in Victoria on 17 Jul 1865. He may also have photographed a Victoria team in Aug 1864. In this news item he is described as a "photographic artist," a common descriptor used by photographers of the 1860s through the 1880s. For the 1865 photograph see BC Archives Item A-02589.
  		C. Gentile news, (Victoria) Colonist, 2 May 1866, p. 3. Following what the newspaper described as a firemen's May Day parade, Gentile photographed the assembled companies and their equipment along with Governor Arthur Kennedy and other government officials in front of the colonial government buildings known as the Birdcages. A print was made and exhibited that evening at a celebration. The photograph may be BC Archives Item A-02607.
  		Carlo Gentile news, Victoria Colonist, 25 Feb 1863, p. 3. While the newspaper described his business as a new music store, it was essentially a new department within his existing store.
  		Carlo Gentile ad, Victoria Daily Chronicle, 18 May 1866, p. 2. A news item about the opening appeared on p. 3 of this newspaper. The studio adjoined the south side of the Victoria Theatre Photographic Gallery and was also known as the Gallery Next Door.

  
  

• Notes

  STATUS: Commercial; Itinerant. BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: Gentile arrived in Victoria from San Francisco in Sep 1862 and opened a "fancy goods" store. The following August he was advertising to buy "photographic fixings" and by Oct 1863 had opened a portrait studio in conjunction with his store. He then sold the store in Feb 1864 and attempted to also sell the photo gallery. Following the winter of 1864-1865, part of which he spent in New Westminster, he made a second attempt to sell his photo gallery in Mar 1865. Unsuccessful in his intention to dispose of the photo business, he carried on and began a series of landscape views throughout parts of the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. One of his most important photographic ventures was in Aug and Sep 1865 when he accompanied Governor Frederick Seymour's party to the Cariboo country. Gentile also photographed the Alberni area in 1864, the Leech River and Sooke district in 1864 during the height of the gold rush and parts of Washington Territory in the late winter of 1865-1866 which he toured with Governor William Pickering. When he departed BC in Sep 1866 he left Noah Shakespeare in charge of the gallery that he had only opened in May of that year. By Feb 1867 his gallery was being operated by W.M. Ashman. Gentile never returned and was later reported to be in San Francisco in 1867, in the U.S. Southwest in 1868 and was in Chicago by the late 1870s. IDENTIFYING MARKS: "C. Gintile [sic], Photographer, Victoria" or "Gentile, Photographer, Victoria, Vancouver Island" or "Gentile, Photographer, Victoria" (with woman's head) or "Gentile, Photographer" on verso of carte-de-visite. Large (approx. 8 x 10 in.) landscape views (negatives) may be captioned by hand and marked "Gentile Pho" (shows up as black on print). REFERENCES: Colonist (Victoria), 1862 09 18/3 (arrives from San Francisco), 1863 08 05/2 (Gentile & Co. ad pre-photographic career), 1863 08 14/2 (ad: "Photographic fixings wanted"), 1863 10 30/2 (ad for gallery opening), 1864 02 02/3, 1864 02 18/3 (auction item), 1864 02 26/2 (auctions lease of house & photographic gallery at back), 1864 03 05/2 (ad), 1864 04 07/2 (ad), 1864 06 28/3, 1864 07 18, 1864 08 15, 1864 09 02/3, 1864 11 07/2, 1865 03 16-about 04 18 (ad for photo gallery sale), 1865 05 18/2 (ad), 1865 06 01, 1865 06 18, 1865 09 16/3, 1865 09 25/3, 1865 10 23/3, 1865 10 27 (2 items), 1865 11 09/3, 1865 11 25/2, 1865 12 08/3, 1866 03 14/3 (returned from Washington Territory), 1866 05 02/3, 1866 07 25/3, 1866 08 15/2 (ad hires N. Shakespeare), 1955 06 19/11; Cariboo Sentinel, 1865 08 26/1, 1866 05 07/4 (ad for gallery in Victoria), 1866 05 10; Columbian (New Westminster), 1865 09 16/3; Chronicle (Victoria), 30 May 1863 05 30/3 ("The Death of John Wood"; coroner's jury member); 1866 05 18/3 (new gallery opened).

  
  

• Sources

  [S46] COLLECTION: BVIPA. [S152] COLLECTION: OOA. Arthur Nonus Birch collection (accession 1976-259). [S138] COLLECTION: BVAUS (Reliability: 3). [S11] Howard, F.P. and Barnett, comps., HOW63, (Victoria, B.C.: Frederick P. Howard and George Barnett, 1863), 63. Victoria: Gentile, G. [sic] merchant and importer Fort [St.] back cover, ad, "Gentile & Co., Importers". [S1147] Henry G. Langley, comp., PACC67, (San Francisco: Henry G. Langley, 1867), 380. Victoria: Gentile G. [sic] photographer Government [S12] MAL68, (Victoria, V.I.: E. Mallandine, 1868). Victoria: not listed [S633] BVIPA VR Photographer File. [S3] David Mattison, Mattison (1980 Winter), (British Columbia Historical News). [S591] David Mattison, Mattison (1987c), (History of Photography 11, no. 4 (October-December 1987):261-263). [S578] Cesare Marino, Marino (1998), (Nevada City, Calif.: Carl Mautz Publishing, 1998). [S1150] Grant Keddie, Keddie (2003), (Victoria, B.C.: Royal B.C. Museum, 2003). [S902] Ronald A. Greene, Greene (2015), (Victoria, BC: Greene Frogge Press, 2015), NW 770.92 G799. (Reliability: 3). [S903] Carlo Gentile @CaribooGentile (Web site), (Twitter.com) (Reliability: 3). [S578] Cesare Marino, Marino (1998), (Nevada City, Calif.: Carl Mautz Publishing, 1998), 1. Marino gives his birthplace as Naples, Italy. [S578] Cesare Marino, Marino (1998), (Nevada City, Calif.: Carl Mautz Publishing, 1998), 65.