BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Daguerreotypes: Five Decades of Collecting

DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Daguerreotypes: Five Decades of Collecting:

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Description of Pictures: Daguerreotypes: Five Decades of Collecting
June 15, 2018 – June 2, 2019
The 2018 installation of the Daguerreian Gallery celebrates the National Portrait Gallery’s golden anniversary by highlighting fifty years of daguerreotype collecting by the museum. Included are portraits of such iconic figures as activist and reformer Dorothea Dix, entrepreneur and showman P. T. Barnum with Tom Thumb, Seneca Chief Governor Blacksnake, U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry, and artist Alfred Waud.
This exhibition is curated by Portrait Gallery Senior Curator of Photographs, Ann Shumard.

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[1] SIPG5D_180620_001.JPG	[2] SIPG5D_180620_006.JPG	[3] SIPG5D_180620_014.JPG
[4] SIPG5D_180620_020.JPG	[5] SIPG5D_180620_027.JPG	[6] SIPG5D_180620_036.JPG
[7] SIPG5D_180620_038.JPG	[8] SIPG5D_180620_048.JPG	[9] SIPG5D_180620_068.JPG
[10] SIPG5D_180620_070.JPG	[11] SIPG5D_180620_078.JPG	[12] SIPG5D_180620_086.JPG
[13] SIPG5D_180620_089.JPG	[14] SIPG5D_180620_092.JPG	[15] SIPG5D_180620_108.JPG
[16] SIPG5D_180620_119.JPG	[17] SIPG5D_180620_121.JPG	[18] SIPG5D_180620_130.JPG
[19] SIPG5D_180620_141.JPG	[20] SIPG5D_180620_148.JPG	[21] SIPG5D_180620_153.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIPG5D_180620_001.JPG: Daguerreotypes: Five Decades of Collecting
2. SIPG5D_180620_014.JPG: Thomas Buchanan Read, 1822-1872 Born Corner Ketch, Pennsylvania During his lifetime, Thomas Buchanan Read earned international accolades for his poetry, painting, and sculpture. The subject of one of Read's best-known poems and his most famous painting (now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery) was "Sheridan's Ride." Both works celebrated Union Army General Philip Sheridan's breakneck, twenty-mile gallop through Virginia's Shenandoah Valley to rally his troops at the Battle of Cedar Creek in October 1864. Acquired in 1965, this portrait of Read was the first daguerreotype to enter the museum's collection. Marcus Aurelius Root, c 1850
3. SIPG5D_180620_020.JPG: The Daguerreotypist Writing for the popular magazine Godey's Lady's Book in the spring of 1849, novelist and short-story writer Timothy S. Arthur described the enormous popularity of daguerreian portraiture in America. "In our great cities," he observed, "a Daguerreotypist is to be found in almost every square; and there is scarcely a county in any state that has not one or more of these industrious individuals busy at work." Created to illustrate the Godey's article, this wood engraving depicts a scene in Marcus Aurelius Root's daguerreian gallery in Philadelphia. As Root readies the camera, his assistant -- most likely his brother, Samuel -- adjusts the headrest to stabilize the apprehensive sitter during the several seconds required to capture his likeness. Unidentified artist, 1849
4. SIPG5D_180620_027.JPG: Matthew C. Perry, 1794-1858 Born Newport, Rhode Island Rising through the ranks from midshipman to commodore, Matthew C. Perry laid the foundation for a professionally trained, technologically superior U. S. Navy that could hold its own throughout the world. In 1854, while on a mission for the United States government, Perry personally negotiated a historic treaty with Japan, establishing diplomatic and trade relations between that nation and the United States for the first time. His success in obtaining American access to a country that had effectively sealed itself off from foreign contact for several centuries was one of the most important diplomatic achievements of the nineteenth century. Alexander Beckers and Victor Piard, c 1855
5. SIPG5D_180620_038.JPG: Thomas Dent Mütter, 1811-1859
6. SIPG5D_180620_048.JPG: Gaetano Bedini, 1806-1864 Born Sinigaglia, Italy In 1853, Italian archbishop Gaetano Bedini traveled to the United States at the request of Pope Pius IX to assess the condition of the Catholic Church in North America and to study the possibility of establishing a papal mission in Washington, D.C. Bedini's multi-month, fact-finding tour coincided with an intense wave of anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant feeling fanned by the newly ascendant American (or Know-Nothing) Party. In several cities, his presence sparked hostile demonstrations. Upon returning to the Vatican, Bedini advocated successfully for the creation of a North American College in Rome to prepare Roman Catholic clergy for service in the United States. Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes, 1853
7. SIPG5D_180620_068.JPG: Robert Dale Owen, 1801-1877 Born Glasgow, Scotland Reformer and social theorist Robert Dale Owen arrived in the United States in 1825 to assist his father in establishing New Harmony -- a cooperative, utopian community in Indiana. The New Harmony experiment proved to be short-lived, and Owen later allied himself with the "Free Enquirers," a liberal group that championed an early form of socialism. In 1842, Owen was elected to Congress, where one of his most important acts was introducing the bill that established the Smithsonian Institution. True to his egalitarian principles, Owen insisted that the Smithsonian take as its mission the increase of knowledge and its popular dissemination. Unidentified daguerreotypist, c 1837
8. SIPG5D_180620_078.JPG: Blacksnake, c 1753-1859 Born Cattaragus, New York A revered leader of the Seneca Nation, Blacksnake (also known as Chainbreaker or Governor Blacksnake) supported the British during the American Revolution. In 1797, he joined the large contingent of Seneca and other Six Nations members who negotiated with the United States to secure reservations for their tribes in western New York. Blacksnake sided with the U.S. against Great Britain during the War of 1812 and fought in the decisive Battle of Fort George on the Niagara frontier. Later, as the principal chief of the Seneca, he encouraged tribal education that embraced Euro-American practices while preserving Native American traditions. Attributed to F.C. Flint, c 1850
9. SIPG5D_180620_092.JPG: Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862 Born London, England Armed with a pencil and a sketchbook, artist-correspondent Alfred Waud created an incomparable record of the Civil War with his illustrations for two of the nation's leading newsweeklies. Working first for the New York Illustrated News (1860–61) and then for Harper's Weekly, Waud accompanied the Army of the Potomac on all its major campaigns, from its defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861) to its victory at the siege of Petersburg (1865). At a time when technical limitations made combat photography impractical, Waud produced highly detailed sketches that captured all the fury and chaos of the battlefield. Benjamin D. Maxham, 1856
10. SIPG5D_180620_108.JPG: Alfred R. Waud, 1828-1891 Born London, England Armed with a pencil and a sketchbook, artist-correspondent Alfred Waud created an incomparable record of the Civil War with his illustrations for two of the nation's leading newsweeklies. Working first for the New York Illustrated News (1860–61) and then for Harper's Weekly, Waud accompanied the Army of the Potomac on all its major campaigns, from its defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861) to its victory at the siege of Petersburg (1865). At a time when technical limitations made combat photography impractical, Waud produced highly detailed sketches that captured all the fury and chaos of the battlefield. Jeremiah Gurney, c 1852
11. SIPG5D_180620_121.JPG: Charlotte Cushman, 1816-1876 Born Hampden, Maine In 1841, teacher, humanitarian, and reformer Dorothea Dix launched a vigorous campaign to secure humane treatment for those afflicted with mental illness. At a time when such individuals were more often imprisoned and abused than cared for and treated, Dix became a tireless advocate for their welfare. Personally investigating the "cages, cellars, stalls, [and] pens" where sufferers were confined, she reported her findings in speeches and articles, as well as in the petitions she submitted to lawmakers. Thanks to her efforts, facilities for the mentally ill were greatly expanded and improved. Unidentified daguerreotypist, c 1850
12. SIPG5D_180620_130.JPG: Jonas Chickering, 1798-1853 Born Hampden, Maine In 1841, teacher, humanitarian, and reformer Dorothea Dix launched a vigorous campaign to secure humane treatment for those afflicted with mental illness. At a time when such individuals were more often imprisoned and abused than cared for and treated, Dix became a tireless advocate for their welfare. Personally investigating the "cages, cellars, stalls, [and] pens" where sufferers were confined, she reported her findings in speeches and articles, as well as in the petitions she submitted to lawmakers. Thanks to her efforts, facilities for the mentally ill were greatly expanded and improved. Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes, 1853
13. SIPG5D_180620_141.JPG: Dorothea Dix, 1802-1887 Born Hampden, Maine In 1841, teacher, humanitarian, and reformer Dorothea Dix launched a vigorous campaign to secure humane treatment for those afflicted with mental illness. At a time when such individuals were more often imprisoned and abused than cared for and treated, Dix became a tireless advocate for their welfare. Personally investigating the "cages, cellars, stalls, [and] pens" where sufferers were confined, she reported her findings in speeches and articles, as well as in the petitions she submitted to lawmakers. Thanks to her efforts, facilities for the mentally ill were greatly expanded and improved. Unidentified daguerreotypist, c 1849
14. SIPG5D_180620_148.JPG: Phineas T. Barnum, 1810-1891 Charles Sherwood Stratton ("Tom Thumb"), 1838-1883 Showman P. T. Barnum was as skilled in promoting legitimate entertainment as he was in marketing outlandish frauds. In 1842, he scored one of his greatest triumphs when he discovered the diminutive Charles Stratton and introduced him to the public as "Tom Thumb." The four-year-old Stratton, who was just twenty-five inches tall and weighed only fifteen pounds, was transformed under Barnum's tutelage into a phenomenally popular entertainer who sang, danced, and performed a variety of costumed roles. Memorialized in this double portrait, the long-lived and amiable partnership between "Tom Thumb" and the "Prince of Humbug" generated substantial fortunes for both men. Attributed to Marcus Aurelius Root or Samuel Root, c 1850
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