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This article examines the life and work of the nineteenth-century French-American artist Victor Prevost. While Prevost's name is familiar to photography historians, the diversity of his artistic accomplishments has not been fully appreciated. An artist celebrated for work in several mediums, Prevost was already making large-format calotypes in 1851 while living in New York City. He was also responsible for innovations in telescopic photography, joining with astronomers at the West Point Military Academy in 1854 to capture a solar eclipse on paper. This paper seeks to broaden knowledge of Prevost's life and work as a commercial artist in New York during the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]