Carl Thiel: Portrait Photographer, Inventor, and Early Filmmaker (1880s-1910s)

Carl Thiel operated photography studios in Duluth and Hibbing, Minnesota from the 1880s until the 1910s

This is a cabinet card by photographer Carl Thiel, who had a studio in Duluth Minnesota. There’s a little bit of information on the internet about Carl, but I was also fortunate to speak to one of his descendants who offered a few more insights.

This card is in really terrific condition.

Additional photographs by Carl Thiel made in Duluth

The following portraits made by Carl Thiel are smaller than the cabinet card pictured above and were probably made later. They also appear to me to be gelatin silver prints, rather than an albumen print like the card above.

Carl Thiel’s studio was located on Ingalls Block, in Duluth, between 1887 and 1891. His studio moved to 105 West Superior, in Duluth, between 1891 and 1901. It is also known that he had a studio in Hibbing, Minnesota, in 1914.

He worked as a photographer between the 1880s and the 1910s. Apparently he was also a bit of an inventor. He held a patent on a hand crank mechanism used to turn a rotating mount for an Eastman Kodak Panoramic camera. 

He was particularly interested in making motion pictures of the mining industry around Duluth and he testified on behalf of workers in a contentious miner’s strike in 1917. 

Thiel was a former actor, and possibly a lady’s man. I found a newspaper article that said he was sued by a man for $15,000 in damages (and that’s in 1907 dollars — a ton of money) for successfully wooing and stealing a married man’s wife. I guess in those days you could get sued for such things. No word on how the lawsuit came out.

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~ Keith