When the Civil War began, soldiers came to have their portraits made at the Gutekunst studio, and then officers came, and eventually the generals arrived.
The growth of the business meant that it was time for a larger space, and in 1864 Gutekunst moved a few doors up Arch St. to number 712, and occupied the whole building.
A full description is found in The Photographic Times & American Photographer, November 1885.
One notable feature of the reception room was an "orchestrion" which used a large cylinder much like a music box to provide music for waiting patrons.

The portrait of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant seems to have been the work that stirred uniform national interest and set Gutekunst apart from his contemporaries.
 Here he tells the story of the how it was created.

Grant was stopping at the Continental Hotel at the time, and I sent someone over there to invite him to come to the studio for a sitting.
 In a short time he strolled in and said he would have come here himself, without an invitation as his brother officers wanted to come to me.
 When he arrived I was busy in the operating-room with a sitter, and while he waited his turn Grant sauntered around the reception-room, his right hand in his trousers-pocket, his left resting in his negligently worn vest.
 I kept him waiting as little as possible, and when I came out I found him in the attitude in which he is photographed.

'General', I said, 'that is a very nice position; just keep your hand that way.'
 Then I took him under the skylight, and he resumed that attitude which was so characteristic while I made the photograph.
 The picture has been considered the best taken of Grant; it has been used for the statue of him in Galena, and General Sherman sent me a letter in which he asserts his belief that it is the most characteristic of the great General.

Railroads needed photographers to show what was to be seen from a train and what was nearby to induce people to travel.
In the 1870s Gutekunst was a photographer for the Pennsylvania Railroad and a collection of stereo views were taken.
The Library Company of Philadelphia has a set of these prints some of which can be viewed at LCPImages.org.

The next great achievement for Gutekunst was the panorama of the 1876 Centennial Exposition held in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.
 The description of the work is as follows:
This ten feet long by eighteen inch wide picture was made from seven negatives by William Bell that were taken from a scaffold erected near the Belmont reservoir.
 The panoramic view printed on a single sheet of paper show all the buildings from Agricultural Hall to the Observatory on George's Hill.
 The large sheet of albumen paper for this panorama was supplied by the John H. Clemons factory on Sansom Street.
 The whites of one hundred and twenty five dozen eggs were required to coat the paper.
 To produce the print the entire sheet had to be exposed to sunlight, one section at a time, under each negative.
 Careful joining of the negatives was required to prevent a dark line from appearing at each juncture.
 Each section had to be printed to the same density despite the ever changing light from the sky.
 After printing out to a much darker shade than desired, the final appearance of the print was achieved through gold toning which had to be evenly applied or some of the blacks would have a bluish cast and others a reddish tone.
 Great difficulty was also encountered handling such a large sheet of wet paper as it passed through the fixing baths, toning and washing processes.
 The success with which he achieved a uniform color and tone can be seen today from a framed copy of the print hanging in the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Louis Gutekunst was placed in charge of developing the print and described the process at a meeting of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia in January 1877.
The work was met with praise from all over the world.
 Frederick Gutekunst was recognized for the monumental work with the Cross of the Knights of the Austrian Order from Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
When the Civil War began, soldiers came to have their portraits made at the Gutekunst studio, and then officers came, and eventually the generals arrived. The growth of the business meant that it was time for a larger space, and in 1864 Gutekunst moved a few doors up Arch St. to number 712, and occupied the whole building. A full description is found in The Photographic Times & American Photographer, November 1885. One notable feature of the reception room was an "orchestrion" which used a large cylinder much like a music box to provide music for waiting patrons.
The portrait of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant seems to have been the work that stirred uniform national interest and set Gutekunst apart from his contemporaries.  Here he tells the story of the how it was created.
Grant was stopping at the Continental Hotel at the time, and I sent someone over there to invite him to come to the studio for a sitting.  In a short time he strolled in and said he would have come here himself, without an invitation as his brother officers wanted to come to me.  When he arrived I was busy in the operating-room with a sitter, and while he waited his turn Grant sauntered around the reception-room, his right hand in his trousers-pocket, his left resting in his negligently worn vest.  I kept him waiting as little as possible, and when I came out I found him in the attitude in which he is photographed.
'General', I said, 'that is a very nice position; just keep your hand that way.'  Then I took him under the skylight, and he resumed that attitude which was so characteristic while I made the photograph.  The picture has been considered the best taken of Grant; it has been used for the statue of him in Galena, and General Sherman sent me a letter in which he asserts his belief that it is the most characteristic of the great General.
Railroads needed photographers to show what was to be seen from a train and what was nearby to induce people to travel. In the 1870s Gutekunst was a photographer for the Pennsylvania Railroad and a collection of stereo views were taken. The Library Company of Philadelphia has a set of these prints some of which can be viewed at LCPImages.org.
The next great achievement for Gutekunst was the panorama of the 1876 Centennial Exposition held in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.  The description of the work is as follows:
This ten feet long by eighteen inch wide picture was made from seven negatives by William Bell that were taken from a scaffold erected near the Belmont reservoir.  The panoramic view printed on a single sheet of paper show all the buildings from Agricultural Hall to the Observatory on George's Hill.  The large sheet of albumen paper for this panorama was supplied by the John H. Clemons factory on Sansom Street.  The whites of one hundred and twenty five dozen eggs were required to coat the paper.  To produce the print the entire sheet had to be exposed to sunlight, one section at a time, under each negative.  Careful joining of the negatives was required to prevent a dark line from appearing at each juncture.  Each section had to be printed to the same density despite the ever changing light from the sky.  After printing out to a much darker shade than desired, the final appearance of the print was achieved through gold toning which had to be evenly applied or some of the blacks would have a bluish cast and others a reddish tone.  Great difficulty was also encountered handling such a large sheet of wet paper as it passed through the fixing baths, toning and washing processes.  The success with which he achieved a uniform color and tone can be seen today from a framed copy of the print hanging in the Library Company of Philadelphia.
Louis Gutekunst was placed in charge of developing the print and described the process at a meeting of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia in January 1877. The work was met with praise from all over the world.  Frederick Gutekunst was recognized for the monumental work with the Cross of the Knights of the Austrian Order from Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Frederick Gutekunst