Edward SCHOHL

On 28 January 1846 an advertisement in the Register informed the residents of Adelaide that another daguerreotype studio was about to open in Adelaide: ‘Edward Schohl, of Hamburg and Paris, having just arrived in South Australia in the George Washington with a Daguerreotype apparatus, including all the recent improvements, begs to announce to the inhabitants of Adelaide and the vicinity, that he will commence operations tomorrow morning on the premises of Mr Robert Sanders, draper etc, Hindley Street, and as he is confident that his portraits will be found far surpassing anything hitherto produced in this colony, and that no one will leave his studio dissatisfied with his performances, he confidently hopes to gain a fair share of the patronage of the enlightened and discerning public of this town. The sittings only occupy 10 seconds, and the finished portrait will be ready for delivery in ten minutes. Hours of attendance from 10 to 1 and 2 to 5 daily. N.B. E. Schohl begs to intimate that he can execute portraits upon a much larger scale than any which have been taken here up to the present time. Sitters are advised to wear as little white in their dress as possible. Any communication made through Mr Robt Hall will be carefully and punctually attended to.’ Three months later Robert Hall (q.v.) bought a daguerreotype apparatus and opened his own studio in Adelaide.

On 30 January Mary Thomas wrote in her diary (ML), ‘I was very much pleased a few days ago by seeing some portraits beautifully thrown off in Daguerreotype, by a German lately arrived with a number of his countrymen in the George Washington. These were the second number of specimens of the Daguerreotype likenesses that have been shown to me.’ By 25 February Edward Schohl had moved to the studio at the rear of Robert Norman’s dental surgery in King William Street, and was making daguerreotypes with George Heseltine (q.v.)

On 23 August 1870 ‘one Edward Schohl, photographer, was charged by the Victorian police with deserting his wife at Castlemaine. Described as small and stout, with a nose "broken at the ridge, large mouth, stooping gait and round shoulders", he had last been seen en route to Melbourne where he intended to leave the colony. His age was given as forty-seven.’

End.