Kiehl-Mann Photograph Collection, 1891-1987

H. Ambrose Kiehl was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1865 and attended Ohio State University in the 1880s trained to be a civil engineer. He opened an engineering office (Kiehl & Hogg) in Port Townsend, Washington. Kiehl married Louisa Jean Stock; their first child, Laura Adele Kiehl, was born in 1892. Their second child, Lorena Miriam Kiehl, was born in Seattle in 1895.

In 1895, Kiehl began work with the US Army in Seattle, as his business in Port Townsend was suffering from the 1893 depression. Kiehl was employed to survey the land under consideration for a military post on Magnolia Bluff. He also supervised clearing and grading, laid out the road and building locations, and supervised construction of what was to be Fort Lawton. Kiehl completed assignments at Forts Worden, Flagler and Casey at Admiralty Inlet, Forts Columbia, Canby and Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia River, and at Fort William Henry Seward near Haines, Alaska. Louisa Kiehl died of cancer in 1917. In the early 1920s, Kiehl was transferred to Wyoming. He died in September, 1942.

The Kiehl photographs were in the care of Laura Kiehl who lived in Port Townsend. She loaned the collection to the Frederick Mann with the understanding it would be made available to the public at Discovery Park. Frederick Mann was a Seattle architect hired by the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department to photograph the buildings at Fort Lawton. His subsequent interest in the site led to his collection of prints and other historical material.