An 1875/1876 letter with a nine year old's strawberry blonde hair mailed from Powell Roofing Co. to Aurora IL for the care of Daguerreian, Ambrotypist, Tintypist and overall photographer Dewitt Clinton (D.C.) Pratt, who resided in numerous Chicago western suburbs.  See below.  Thanks for looking.

Courtesy of craigcameradotcom:

Pratt, Dewitt C.

Active as a daguerreian. In 1854-1855 he was listed in Downer's Grove, Ill. This is probably the same D.C. Pratt listed in 1855-1856 in St. Charles, Ill., and from 1857 to 1860 in Aurora, Ill. In 1857 he was listed at Odd Fellows Hall, Aurora. In 1859 he was listed with the "Excelsior Photographic Gallery" and offered daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, etc., in the Union Block, Broadway, over Buck and Roe's Drug Store. In 1857, he continued to have a gallery in St. Charles, on Main Street, upstairs, east of the bridge. Pratt apparently maintained the business in Aurora until his son, E.C. Pratt, took it over in 1892. Information corrected to November, 1997; © 1996, 1997 John S. Craig

Courtesy of the St. Charles, IL Library:

Butler-Pratt Building
103 W. Main Street    

This brick building, constructed by Dewitt Clinton Pratt in approximately 1850, is one of the oldest commercial buildings in St. Charles.  Dewitt Pratt came to Illinois from Homer, New York in 1845, living first in Chicago and then Waukegan. He moved to St. Charles in 1850 and established a daguerreotype photography business in this building. Pratt, also a trained cabinet maker and painter, remained in the photography business in the Fox Valley area for 50 years. Although he established another gallery in Aurora in 1851 and moved his family there in 1853, he continued to maintain a photography gallery in St. Charles. Over the years, Pratt mastered ambrotype photography and film photography, and incorporated them into his business. According to Ferslew's 1857 Kane County Directory and Gazetteer, Pratt's Excelsior Photographic Galleries offered customers the opportunity to have their likenesses mounted in frames, rings, or lockets