Between 1840 and 1846 Thompson worked in Philadelphia and in 1843 refined Daniel Davis Jr.'s electroplating method for colouring daguerreotypes by using a gum tragacanth resist.
According to an article in the 1892 American Journal of Photography by editor Julius Sachse, Thompson traveled to Paris in 1845 from New York without speaking any French and with an introduction from the Russian Consul in New York to the Russian Vice-Consul in Paris who in turn arranged an introduction to Russian photographer Sergei Lvovich Levitsky.
Sachse further claims that Thompson influenced for the development of portrait daguerreotypes in Paris.
Levitsky returned to Russia by 1849 but came back to Paris by 1859 where he took over Thompson's Choiseul address.
For a pioneer era photographer whose role appears to have been quite prominent in Paris in the 1840s and 50s, Thompson's career is poorly known.