- Nineteenth-Century
Texts
- On
the Daguerreotype
[from
the online exhibition »Secrets
of the Dark Chamber : - The
Art of the American Daguerreotype« prepared
by the
- National
Museum of American Art in Washington D. C.]
The
following excerpts from contemporary nineteenth-century newspapers, maga-
- zines,
diaries, and artists' notebooks discuss the first appearance of the daguerreo-
- type
in America. The earliest examples--from The New Yorker, The Knickerbocker,
- and
the diary of Philip Hone of New York City in 1839--reflect both popular
astonish-
- ment
and an intense curiosity about the future of this new invention. Also included
- is
a history of the daguerreotype in America written by those who had a firsthand
- role
in its history or who were eyewitnesses to its development. These descriptions
- are
a part of artistic accounts and writings on the aesthetics of the daguerreotype
- by
masters of the process or significant observers like Rembrandt Peale. The
dis-
- cussions
are founded upon craft and technique and in some cases contain techni-
- cal
information.
-
The daguerreotype was a dual product of science and art, and the role of
science-
- chemistry
and optics-in its history cannot be underestimated. Science fosters ex-
- perimentation,
which led, with the daguerreotype, to the invention of a variety of
- devices
for perfecting the actual image; to attempts at color photography, some
of
- which
were actually successful; and to the daguerreotyping of objects as distant
- and
vast as the moon and stars and as close and microscopic as the tracheae
of
- worms.
Such work was important to the histories of photography and science, and
- consequently
this selection includes scientific writings about the daguerreotype.
-
Just as science was an intellectual frontier of the nineteenth century,
the American
- West
was a physical frontier. Included here are texts that illustrate the daguerreo-
- type's
role in the westward movement. The final texts in this selection are laments
- for
the daguerreotype's passing. Long after it had been replaced by the cheaper
- tintype
and paper prints of a negative-based photography, the daguerreotype re-
- mained
a valued, if no longer practiced, tradition.
"New
Discovery in the Fine Arts," The New Yorker, April 13,
1839
"New
Discovery in the Fine Arts. The Daguerreotype," - The
New Yorker, April 20, 1839
"The
Daguerreotype," The Knickerbocker, December 1839
The
Diary of Philip Hone, December 4, 1839
"Professor
Draper on the Process of Daguerreotype and its application to - taking
Portraits from Life," Philosophical Magazine, September 1840
S.
D. Humphrey, "Lunar
Daguerreotypes," - Daguerreian
Journal, November 1850
John
Werge, "Rambles
Among the Studios of America," - fromThe
Evolution of Photography, 1890
"Daguerreotyping
in New York," Daguerreian Journal, November 1850
J.
H. Fitzgibbon, "Daguerreotyping,"
Western Journal and Civilian, 1851
J.
K. Fisher, "Photography,
the Handmaid of Art," - Photographic
Art-Journal, January 1851
L.
L. Hill, "The
Hillotype," from A Treatise on Heliochromy, 1851
Jeremiah
Gurney, A
Letter, Daguerreian Journal, May 1851
H.
H. Snelling, "The
Hillotype," Photographic Art-Journal, June 1851
"Important
Experiment. Daguerreotype of the Sun," - Daguerreian
Journal, August 15, 1851
"The
True Artist," Daguerreian Journal, August 1851
J.
H. Fitzgibbon, "Hillotype,"
Daguerreian Journal, October 1851
R.
H. Vance, Catalogue
of Daguerreotype Panoramic Views in California 1851
John
A. Whipple, "Preparing
Plates by Steam," - Photographic
Art-Journal, May 1852
John
A. Whipple, "Microscopic
Daguerreotypes," - Photographic
Art-Journal, October 1852
Marcus
Root, "The
Various Uses of the Daguerrean Art," - Photographic
Art-Journal, December 1852
"Photography
in the United States," Photographic Art-Journal, June 1853
Marcus
Root, "Qualifications
of a First-Class Daguerreotypist," - Photographic
Art-Journal, August 1853
Solomon
Carvalho, from Incidents
of Travel and Adventure in the Far West, 1853
"Gossip"
(Daguerreotypes at the Crystal Palace), - Photographic
Art-Journal, September 1853
John
Ross Dix, from Amusing
and Thrilling Adventures of a California Artist While - Daguerreotyping
a Continent Amid Burning Deserts, Savages, and Perpetual Snows,
- And
a Poetical Companion to the Pantoscope of California, Nebraska & Kansas,
- Salt
Lake & the Mormons. From 1500 Daguerreotypes by J. Wesley Jones, Esq
.,
- 1854
Gabriel
Harrison, "The
Dignity of our Art," Photographic Art-Journal, April 1854
Albert
S. Southworth, "Suggestions
to Ladies Who Sit for Daguerreotypes," - Lady's
Almanac, 1854 and 1855
"The
Hillotype," Humphrey's Journal, August 1856
Rembrandt
Peale, "Portraiture,"
The Crayon, 1857
D.D.T.
Davie, "The
Daguerreotype," from Secrets of the Dark Chamber, 1870
Albert
S. Southworth, "An
Address to the National Photographic Association," - 1870,
Philadelphia Photographer, October 1871
Albert
S. Southworth, "An
Address to the National Photographic Association," - 1872,Philadelphia
Photographer, June 1872
Albert
S. Southworth, "Comments
at the National Photographic Association," - 1873,Philadelphia
Photographer, September 1873
Albert
S. Southworth, "The
Use of the Camera," - Philadelphia
Photographer, September 1873
George
Alfred Townsend, "Still
Taking Pictures: Brady, the Grand Old Man of Ame- - rican
Photography," The World, April 1891
Albert
S. Southworth, "Photography,
Painting and Sculpture," - Photographic
Times, November 1897
J.
J. Hawes, "Stray
Leaves from the Diary of the Oldest Professional Photographer - in
the World," Photo-Era, February 1906
[assembled
by The Daguerreian Society, New York]
We
are happy to present this broad selection of 19th and 20th century texts
about - the
daguerreotype. Some text are presented with their original illustrations.
It is our
- goal
to make available difficult-to-locate texts that will be both enjoyable
to read as
- well
as useful for research.
As the number of texts offered here nears one hundred, we've found
it necessary
- to
arrange the menu as a topical index of the texts. Since catagorization
is a rather
- inexact
science, you may be wise to look through all the topics.
