An Nineteenth Century Jew Among the Mormons

In 1853, Solomon Nunes Carvalho set out on the fifth and final expedition of explorer Charles Frémont through the Rocky Mountains, in search of a westward railroad route to California along the 38th parallel. Carvalho, an observant Sephardic Jew born in Charleston, S.C., had never imagined himself an explorer.

He was an artist — primarily a portrait artist — who had expanded his studio to include daguerreotyping, an early form of photography that captured images on a silver-coated plate. According to critic Bertram Wallace Korn, in joining the expedition, Carvalho became “the first official photographer to be appointed to the staff of an exploring party anywhere in the world.” Recent interest in this historic moment has been underscored by Robert Shlaer’s 2000 book, “Sights Once Seen,” in which he retraces Carvalho’s trip, and the work of Brooklyn-based filmmaker Steve Rivo on his documentary, “Carvalho’s Journey.”