Gabriel Harrison

Gabriel Harrison (March 25, 1818 – December 15, 1902) was an American photographer, actor, playwright, painter, and writer active in New York City.

Early life Harrison was born in Philadelphia on March 25, 1818, to an engraver father. He moved to New York City with his family at age six and made his theatrical debut in 1838 as the title character in Shakespeare's Othello opposite Lester Wallack. The Infant Savior bearing the cross (ca. 1850), and California News, a daguerreotype noted for its staged narrative rather than being a simple portrait.

His written works include a dramatization of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and biographies of actors John Howard Payne and Edwin Forrest.

Harrison supported free art schools in connection with the Brooklyn Academy of Design, which he co-founded, and was also a portrait and landscape painter.

Works

Plays: The Scarlet Letter (1876) Books: The Life and Writings of John Howard Payne (1875) A History of the Progress of the Drama, Music and the Fine Arts in the City of Brooklyn (1884) Edwin Forrest: The Actor and the Man (1889)