In 1856 James Milton Keeney came to Grand Rapids, Michigan from Rochester, New York. In Grand Rapids he purchased the photo gallery of O.W. (Orsamus W.) Horton and continued the business for three years. During 1856 or 1857 knowledge of the new process of making prints on paper became known, in place of the daguerreotypes on copper or ambrotype on glass. The prints in this album of prominent citizens of that time are said to be among the first made in Grand Rapids with the new photographic process. An image of the photographer Horton is among those included in this small collection, as well as photographer Keeney, himself. Keeney was born in 1836, and left Grand Rapids in 1858. He is said to have died of an accidental shooting somewhere in the South, previous to the Civil War.

See research material on Keeney, gathered by researcher Diana Barrett and included in this collection. James Milton Keeney is believed not to be the same as James H. Keeney, documented in Coll. 242, the GRPL Civil War Documents Collection, though they appear to have been from the same generation.