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Born: 1849
Died: ?
Gender: Male
Active: US
Son of Solomon Nunes Carvalho (d. 1897), the first Jewish photographer in the U.S. Born in 1848, he is listed with his family in the 1850 Baltimore Census: Solomon N., 35, b. SC; Sarah N., 25?, b. NY; David N., 2, b. PA; and Charity N., 6 months, b. MD. David accompanied his father to Martinique in 1872 and had a photography studio in New York City at 65 E. 127th St. in 1877. He was active there as a photographer from 1877 to at least 1885. Not clear when he held the position with the New Jersey Stereoscopic View Co., but probably 1872-1876. Carvalho filed for patent 225458 A, on June 16, 1879, published Mar. 16, 1880, assigned to himself and Ernest Marx, both of New York at that time (Marx was later in Plainfield, NJ), for a method to shorten exposure times by painting the studio an orange pea green color and coating the collodion negative with a film of violet colored collodion. Also resubmitted, reissued as R9384 and repatented Nov. 9, 1880 as 234171. Carvalho also got patents 237246, focusing frame using celluloid; 237247, photo background using celluloid; and 237248, printing frame using celluloid. He later became an expert on handwriting and inks and was mentioned in the New York Times as testifying in various court cases, 1881, 1887, 1888, 1896-1899, and perhaps later. Carvalho patented a method of coating documents to protect from erasure, 1353720, patented Sept. 21, 1920.
Red Bank Register, Feb. 11, 1885: Carvalho expert witness in Circuit Court, Freehold, in Frank Patterson forgery case, at which he displayed enlarged photographs of signatures that he had made. NYT, Dec. 18, 1888, describes him as City Librarian, who discovered a handsomely bound copy of the Declaration of Independence, engrossed on vellum, which was presented to the Common Council on July 4, 1828. NYT: Reported as leader of Wide-Awake Democrats in Harlem, 1890-1891. NYT, Jan. 14, 1894: member of 6-15-99 Club, organized by prominent businessmen to aid the unemployed. 1880 Census (Manhattan): 31, photographer, born PA, father born SC, mother born NY, living with wife Annie M., born LA, father born SC, mother born England; Adele M., 3, b. NY; Bertram, 2, born NY; servant Lizzie Hogan, 19, born Canada, father born Scotland, mother born Canada. 1900 Census (Queens, NY, Semnit? Ave near Mott and Bay avenues): owns home, 51, b. Sept. 1848, expert handwriting; Annie M., 43, b. Nov. 1856, LA, father SC, mother NY; Adele, 23, b. Dec. 1876, NY; Marie, 18, b. May 1882, NY; Leslie R. (son), 14, b. Nov. 1885, NY; Clare [Claire], 11, b. Sept. 1889; house guest Hugo Varkening, wool merchant, 31, b. Germany, Oct. 1868, emigrated 1888, naturalized; Rose Mooney, servant, b. Mar. 1882, Ireland; Annie Quinn, servant, 30, b. Jan. 1870, NY; and August Sivanson, coachman, 30, b. Dec. 1868, Sweden. 1920 Census (17 W. 10th St., Manhattan): 71, handwriting expert, widower, living alone.
David Carvalho made two contributions to Anthony's Photographic Bulletin concerning the use of green paint to shorten exposure times in studios. 10:3 (Mar. 1879): 79 and 10:1 (Jan 1879): 31.
Carvalho's career as a handwriting expert is detailed in his daughter Claire Carvalho's biography, Crime in Ink (1929). Included is his work in freeing Dreyfus who was convicted with a forged document; at that time in the 1890s he was living in Bayswater on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens.
The David N. Carvalho Collection of rare books and manuscripts is at the Free Library of Philadelphia; catalog online. A portrait of David N. Carvalho is in the the book about his father, Solomon Nunes Carvalho (Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, 1989).
Biographical information courtesy of Gary D. Saretzky. (23 May 2017)
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