Existing comment:
Daguerreotypes:
The advent of photography in 1839 brought with it new democratic possibilities of representation that matched the expanding spirit of the American nation. The daguerreotype -- the first practical method of photography -- revolutionized picture-making when it was introduced to the world by Frenchman Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre. Utilizing chemically sensitized plates of silver-clad copper to produce unique, direct positive images that were remarkable for their exquisite clarity and detail, Daguerre's process was swiftly adapted for portraiture. In the spring of 1840, the first commercial portrait studios opened in the United States.
Daguerreotype likenesses proved phenomenally popular with the American public. As daguerreian galleries sprung up in cities large and small, ordinary citizens joined the nation's elite in having their portraits made for as little as twenty-five cents. By 1849, Godey's Lady's Book proclaimed, "it is hard to find the man who has [been daguerreotyped]... from once to half-a-dozen times, or who has not the shadowy faces of his wife and children done up in purple morocco and velvet, together or singly among his household treasures."
The majority of the daguerreotypes produced in America between 1840 and 1860 were intended for personal use. Yet the qualities that made the daguerreotype such an evocative private memento also made it a powerful medium for public portraiture. |