John F. Peto's studio at F. Weber Co. (before the artist's birth)

In the artist's papers there was this photograph.  In 2017 by chance the artist's grandson Eric discovered the photograph was similar to photographs of the studio of John F.  Peto and that Peto had rented a studio in F. Weber Co.'s building at 1125 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia for two years in the 1870s. He shared the photo with experts at the John F. Peto Studio Museum speculating the photo was of Peto in his studio at F. Weber Co.

Their response:
"Art committee members of the Peto Museum have looked at the image. We are fairly certain that the man in the photo is not Peto.  However, many of the objects in the photograph look like things that were in Peto's studio.  We think it may be possible that Peto was the photographer who took the photo.  Peto is listed as a photographer in the 1880 census of Philadelphia and a letter written to a genealogist by one of Peto's granddaughters mentions that Peto originally came to Island Heights to be a photographer but decided to paint instead."

Grandson Eric:  Perhaps it is a photograph of Frederick Theodore Weber (1845-1919), the artist's father, taken by John F. Peto in his studio. Although after reviewing photographs of Peto in the 1870s I am not convinced it is not Peto himself in the photograph.