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Frederick Gutekunst 1917 (photographer)

Frederick Gutekunst (1831 – 1917) was an American photographer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He opened his first photographic portrait studio with his brother in 1854 and successfully ran his business for sixty years. He grew to national prominence during the American Civil War and expanded his business to include two studios and a large phototype printing operation. He is known as the "Dean of American Photographers" due to his high quality portraits of dignitaries and celebrities. He worked as the official photographer of the Pennsylvania Railroad and received national and international recognition for his photographs of the Gettysburg battlefield and an innovative 10-foot long panoramic photograph of the Centennial Exposition.

Most sources list Gutekunst's place of birth as Philadelphia.However, his obituary in the Photographic Journal of America lists Gutekunst's birthplace as Germany.

He worked for two years at a drug store in Philadelphia and began to collect parts to build a camera. He was able to purchase a lens and battery and his father built a box to house the camera. He joined the Franklin Institute and used their laboratory facilities to conduct scientific experiments. He created his own photographic plates coated with collodion and made ambrotypes of his friends in the back of the drug store. Gutekunst's brother, Louis, was a barber and helped financially support Frederick's interest in photography. In 1856, the two brothers opened a photography studio named Gutekunst & Brother. They worked together until 1860, when Louis went back to work as a barber.