Britt is considered as one of the Pacific Northwest's most celebrated photographers,[1] as well as the "father of the grape industry" in Southern Oregon.

Portrait artists of the time were faced with competition from daguerreotype photographers, so Britt studied this new technology with John H. Fitzgibbon[4] in St. Louis.

Although Britt apparently opened his own studio in Highland in 1847 and operated it for five years, however no records to support that claim were ever located.

According to Alan Clark Miller, he arrived to the gold-mining camp of Jacksonville with the two-wheeled cart, a yoke of oxen, a mule, and five dollars in his pocket.

[8] Although Peter Britt brought his photographic equipment all the way from Illinois to Oregon for a photo studio, he first tried gold mining and mule packing in order to earn a living.

Miller states that Peter immediately sent Amalia funds to return to Switzerland if she wished, or to travel to Oregon and marry him.

With her young son Jacob, Amalia traveled to New Orleans and around Cape Horn to San Francisco, then by steamer to Crescent City and finally by stage to the Applegate stop.

[1] Although Britt traveled only within 100 miles (160 km) of Jacksonville, this provided opportunities to photograph the Oregon Coast, the Redwood Empire, the Siskiyou Mountains, the Rogue and Klamath rivers, and the deserts and lava beds east of the Cascades.

His photos helped William Gladstone Steel persuade Congress to create Crater Lake National Park in 1902.

He painted remembered views of Switzerland, portraits of Britt family members and Oregon scenes such as Crater Lake and Mill Creek Falls.

Long before he established Oregon's first winery, Valley View Vineyard, Peter Britt grew grapes and sold wine in Jacksonville.

B. Cordley and Professor E. R. Lake, of the Oregon Agricultural College at Corvallis, while in Jacksonville for the fruit-growers convention paid a visit to Britt's home and examined the park about the house and his collection of trees, shrubs, and flowers.

Britt handled correspondence for Eintracht, found work for young emigrants, and provided occasional lodging for travelers.

[20] The International Center of Photography in Manhattan, New York City, held an exhibition of photographs by Peter Britt in recognition of his life achievements.

[21] In Southern Oregon, Peter Britt is still remembered and celebrated as the painter and pioneer photographer who left a rich heritage of local 19th-century portraits and landscapes.

During his 50 years in Jacksonville, Oregon, he contributed to the growth of the local community in many ways, as a model citizen and family man, visual artist, gardener, orchardist, and vintner, among other activities.

[10] The Southern Oregon Historical Society created an exhibit, Peter Britt: The Man Beyond the Camera housed in the Jacksonville Museum, with near 400 artifacts, including Britt’s personal diaries from 1859 to 1905, photographs and oil paintings, and the daguerreotype camera that he brought to Jacksonville over the Oregon Trail, among other items.