Picture Newsboys, Seamstresses, and Fishermen in Daguerre’s America

Want to revisit American life in the 1840s? You can by viewing some 300 early-American photographic portraits on display at the MIT Museum’s exhibit, Daguerre’s American Legacy, open through January 4, 2015. The majority are daguerreotypes—one of the earliest forms of photography—from the collection of Wm. B. Becker and date from 1840 to 1900.

[layerslider id="4"] Wm. B. Becker Collection/PhotographyMuseum.com

Invented by Louis Daguerre in Paris and revealed to the public in 1839, daguerreotypes are small, keepsake images on mirror-like surfaces. As the exhibit demonstrates, the wildly popular technology quickly became a truly democratic art in part because they were a more accessible and affordable alternative to the painted portrait.  By 1853, roughly three million daguerreotypes were made and sold in the United States each year.

Daguerreotypes were created by using a silver-plated piece of copper and making it light sensitive through an iodine/bromine chemical solution. Plates were then exposed in the camera to light and the photo subject. Once the plate was exposed to boiling fumes of mercury, the image became visible. Such a practice could be quite dangerous—daguerreotypist Jeremiah Gurney nearly died in 1852 after inhaling mercury fumes.

Curator Gary Van Zante organized the show around major themes of American identity, personal expression, fraternity, and family and work life. Of note are the sheer number of family portraits, although most of the subjects are unidentified. While artists typically charged more with each additional subject in painted family portraits, daguerreotypists did not and the resulting images offer codes for discerning the relationships among siblings and between parents and children.

In one daguerreotype, a father carries a flute in one arm, perhaps signifying his favorite pastime or profession, and throws a protective arm over his young son who sports a plaid suit and a black bow tie. The young boy has rosy cheeks, a color detail painted in later and a common practice by daguerreotypist

In another portrait of four brothers, the eldest glares seriously in a black suit. His two younger brothers are to the right of him in lighter suits and in the far right is a fluffy dog, his tongue out and looking quite pleased. According to the exhibit caption, it’s as if the photographer flipped from the serious to the silly in one image.

One section highlights professions. There’s a man posed with a hammer, a woman with pincushion and scissors, and three men displayed with a lobster and a fish. In one portrait, a young newsboy looks quite proud of himself. Perhaps he bought this portrait himself with his earnings from selling the papers he holds.

Visit the MIT Museum’s website to learn about the exhibit and other upcoming events.