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The Daniel Daguerreotypes
One day in the early 1850s, Associate Justice Peter V. Daniel walked into a photographic studio to have his picture taken. It was one of just two times he is known to have been photographed. A few minutes later Justice Daniel was able to see the results for himself, and walked away with a single portrait that would be passed down in his family for generations. Another portrait taken that same day was recently discovered, and the two are reunited here for the first time in 160 years.
What is a Daguerreotype?
Daguerreotypes are black-and-white photographs on highly polished silver-coated plates rather than paper. Each is a one-of-a-kind original -- these plates in front of your were actually in the camera when Justice Daniel sat for his portrait. After photography was introduced to the world in the late 1830s, the daguerreotype process became its dominant and most popular form for twenty years. By 1860, however, competitive processes which let a photographer make multiple prints from a single negative brought an end to the daguerreotype era and its magical silver plates.
Justice Daniel:
Justice Peter V. Daniel was born in 1784 near Fredericksburg, Virginia. His early career included service in the Virginia House of Delegates and on the US District Court for Eastern Virginia. In 1841, he was appointed by President Martin Van Buren to the Supreme Court to the Supreme Court of the United States, and served until his death in 1860. He was a strong supporter of states' rights, of a limited federal government, and was vigorously pro-slavery -- in his concurring opinion for the landmark 1857 case of Fred Scot v. Sandford, he declared that even freed black slaves could not be citizens.
The Story of the Three Plates:
Justice Daniel's portrait session took place at one of J.H. (Jesse Harrison) Whitehurst's several Daguerrian galleries, most likely the one here in Washington, DC. At least three photographic plates of Daniels were made that day, although he kept only one (center). It descended in the family until being donated by his great-great grandson and namesake, Peter V. Daniel of Lynchburg, Virginia.
The other plates were probably kept by the Whitehurst Gallery and displayed as examples of their work. One of these plates (left) was discovered at auction and acquired with the assistance of the Supreme Court Historical Society. Another plate, currently lost, was copied in the 1860s by Mathew Brady's studio (right). In photography's early years it was not unheard of for a rival photographer -- in this case, Brady's studio -- to acquire a photograph by another and resell it under their name. |