1.  New York: New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940 (online at FamilySearch.org):

Name	Ehphalet Brown
Event Date	15 Dec 1874
Event Place	Manhattan, New York, NY
Gender | Age	Male | 59
Marital Status	Single
Birthplace	Massachusetts
Father's Name	Ehphalet Brown
Mother's Name	Mary Davis
Spouse's Name	Margaret Coolidge
Spouse's Gender | Age	Female | 51
Spouse's Birthplace	Connecticut
Spouse's Father's Name	William Hawley
Spouse's Mother Name	Catharine King
GS Film Number	1562051
Reference ID	cn 8150

2.  1840 U.S. Census Index/Images (online at Ancestry.com):  based on the census, alone, it's very difficult to know where Eliphalet was in 1840 because only "heads-of-households" were enumerated (viz., married men).  An unmarried man would generally not be enumerated, unless he was living alone as his own, "head-of-household."  There is no Eliphalet BROWN in either Newburyprt or Manhattan who is obviously our subject.  There is an Eliphalet BROWN (æ 20-29) living in Kings Co., NY, but it would be difficult to prove he is our subject, just as it would be difficult to rationalize his being in Brooklyn.

3.  1850 U.S. Census Every-Name-Index/Images (online at Ancestry.com):  can't find.  Was he already in the Navy?  Was he singled out by Perry for the expedition out of convenience because he was a daguerreotyper already in the Navy, rather than as a choice amongst civilian daguerreotypers in New York City?  Has a false myth arisen here?

4.  1860 U.S. Census Every-Name-Index/Images (online at Ancestry.com):  not found, but his Naval career probably took him out of the country.

5.  1870 U.S. Census Every-Name-Index/Images (online at Ancestry.com):  not found, but his Naval career probably took him out of the country.

6.  1880 U.S. Census Every-Name-Index/Images (online at Ancestry.com, Image #16 of 42):  101 Park Avenue, New York City, New York Co., NY, Roll 894, p. 171D, PN 16, SD One, ED 570, enumerated 7 Jun 1880, official enumeration date 1 Jun 1880 (extracted by Diana Gale Matthiesen):

1880:  for an explanation of the column headings, please see What the Numbers in the Federal Census Mean (missing columns contained no data).

1

2

3

4

5

6

8

9

10

13

24

25

26

*

101

107

139

Brown E

W

M

64

/

Gentleman

Mass

Mass

Mass

_____ Margaret

W

F

52

Wife

/

Keeping house

Conn

Conn

Conn

Coolidge Fannie

W

F

22

StepDau

/

Living with Step Father

New

Conn

N Y

Clarkin Anna

W

F

22

Servant

/

Servant

Ireland

Ireland

Ireland

Cullen Delia

W

F

22

"

/

"

"

"

"

*Park Avenue

7.  1890 U.S. Census:  the 1890 Census Population Schedules were destroyed.

8.  1900 U.S. Census Every-Name-Index/Images (online at Ancestry.com):  can't find Margaret.

9a.  Connecticut Deaths and Burials Index, 1650-1934 (online at Ancestry.com):

Name	Eliphalet Brown
Age at Death	69
Death Date	23 Jan 1886
Death Place	Ridgefield, CT
FHL Film #	3360

This is a deaths and burials index, and this record refers to his burial, not his death, which was in Manhattan.

9b.  New York, New York, Death Index, 1862-1948 (online at Ancestry.com):

Name	Margaret Brown
Age	82
Death Date	16 Jun 1906
Death Place	Manhattan, NY
Certificate #	19296

10.  Find-a-Grave: Entries (online at findagrave.com; linked Margaret to Eliphalet and Henry, posted correction re: James Sidney, 11 Aug 2015):

Name	Eliphalet Brown	Margaret Hawley Brown
Birth	unknown	unknown
Death	Jan. 23, 1886	Jun. 16, 1906
Note	[long note, includes error re: James Sidney being brother]	[note] Age 82y 3m 22d
Burial	Scott's Cemetery [Section 4] Ridgefield, Fairfield Co., CT
Inscription
Father
Mother
Spouse
Memorial #	41766882	41766881

11.  Jack Sanders.  14 Jan 2013.  "Admiral Perry's Photographer is Buried Here."  The Ridgefield Press (Ridgefield, CT) (online at www.theridgefieldpress.com).

12.  Anon.  Monday, 25 Jan 1886.  "Obituary."  Boston Journal (Boston, MA), Vol. LIII, Issue 17333, p. 4 (online at GenealogyBank.com):

There were other obits in other papers; they're repetitive, so I don't know if it's worth the trouble to put them online here.

13.  Eliphalet M. Brown, Jr.: Daguerreotypist and Artist for the Perry Expedition to Japan(online at BaxleyStamps.com).

14.  View of Hong Kong from East Point.  A tinted lithograph by Wilhelm Heine (1827-1885) and Eliphalet Brown, Jr. (1816-1886), for sale (10 Aug 2015) by Donald A. Heald Rare Books in  NYC via The Antiquarian Bookseller (www.abaa.org).

15a.  Bruce T. Erickson.  2013.  "Brown Jr., Eliphalet (1816-1886): An Early-American Expeditionary Photographer."  Pages 222-224 in John Hannavy's Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography.  Routledge, NY. 1736 pp. (excerpts online at books.google.com).

p. 222	BROWN JR., ELIPHALET (1816-1886) An early-American expeditionary photographer Although Eliphalet Brown, Jr. is best remembered as the daguerreotypist with Commodore Matthew Perry's 1852 mission to open Japan to the West, he had an extensive career prior to that famous role.      He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1816, and by his early twenties was working as an artist in New York...
p. 223	A younger brother, James Sydney Brown, had also come to New York to pursue a carrer as an artist.  With Eliphalet's help, he began as a silversmith's apprentice, then opened his own portrait studio, but soon gave that up to become the first operator for the newly opened daguerrerotype gallery of Matthew Brady.  By 1846, James had left Brady to join Eliphalet Brown as a partner in their own business...      Eliphalet left his brother's partnership in 1848 and in 1851 join with Charles Severyn...	The Eliphalet BROWN, Jr., born in Newburyport, son of Eliphalet BROWN, Sr., had no younger brother named, James Sidney.  James was, in fact, born in New York City, the son of Isaac BROWN of Connecticut.  It was James's father who pressed him to become a silversmith, not Eliphalet, and it was James's brother, Charles BROWN, whose connections got him into the National Academy of Design in 1841.  Eliphalet and James presumably met working at Mattew BRADY's gallery, after which they briefly (1846-48) went into business together as E. & J. Brown in NYC.  Their like surnames were simply a coincidence.
p. 224	Biography Eliphalet Brown, Jr. was born in 1816 in Newburyport, Massachusetts... He learned daguerreotype from his younger brother James Sydney Brown...  At the conclusion of the expedition (w/Perry to Japan), Brown continued in Navy service, never again being active in any area of art or photography.  He retired around 1875, married and lived quietly until his death on 24 Jan, 1886... Further Reading...	Erickson cites six sources, two of which I've extracted below.  If Erickson used these for his sketch, there's no point in seeking them out because they would apparently contain the same genealogical error.

15b.  Bruce T. Erickson.  1990.  "Eliphalet M. Brown, Jr., An Early Expedition Photographer."  Pages ?? in The Daguerreian Annual.  Daguerreian Society, Pittsburg, PA. [not seen]

15c.  George C. Groce & David H. Wallace.  1957. The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860.  Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. [not seen]

16.  Anon.  1943.  National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826-1860.  2 vols.  New York Historical Society, NY (online at archive.org):

Vol. I, A-L, p. 3	EXHIBITION RECORD...
Vol. I, A-L, p. 52	BROWN, Eliphalet M., Jr. (active 1840-1858)      1841 Address:  54 Pike Street.           3.  Canute Reproving His Courtiers.

17.  Public Member Trees (online at Ancestry.com).