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file.
Go directly to the collection, America's
First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1862,
in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources
related to the collection.
The daguerreotypes available in America's First Look into the Camera
provide an opportunity to assess the value of research tools such as
timelines and visual biographies. The subtle details within occupational
portraits of tradesmen and other working classes can be interpreted
to determine the status of each group in the nineteenth-century United
States. Portraits of politicians provide a starting point to gain a
better understanding of the rise and fall of the Whig Party. These and
other images also allow a number of opportunities for future historical
research.
Chronological Thinking: Timeline and Biography
The collection's Timeline
of the Daguerrian Era provides a brief history of the United States
from 1839 to 1860. It also provides the opportunity to understand that
timelines are interprative tools that enhance the study of history by
focusing on select events at the expense of other historical moments.
Assess this collection's timeline by identifying the specific themes
and ideas that it emphasizes and those themes and ideas that are left
out.
Stephen
Arnold Douglas. |
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- What themes are represented in this timeline? How are these
themes related to each other?
- Do you think that this timeline is helpful in understanding
the collection? Why or why not?
- What other events or themes could have been included in a
timeline for this collection?
Chronological thinking can also be practiced in biographical projects.
Select a photograph of a famous person represented in the collection.
Research what was going on in this person's life in the year that
the photograph was taken. Determine what the main events were in
this person's life. Take on this individual's persona, and write
a journal entry for the year in which the photograph was taken.
Try to make the entry reflect the significance of this time in the
person's life. |
Historical Comprehension: The Whig Party
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The Whig Party's history coincided with the era of the daguerreotype.
Its origin and dissolution were based on various political conflicts.
In 1834, Henry
Clay and other members of the National Republican party joined
forces with disgruntled Democrats to establish the Whig Party
in opposition to President Andrew
Jackson's policies.
Six years after the party's formation, William Henry Harrison
won the presidential election on the Whig ticket, but he died
one month into serving his term. His successor, Vice President
John Tyler, demonstrated loyalties to the Democrats and was kicked
out of the party. Henry Clay earned the 1844 Whig nomination but
his refusal to discuss the issue of the annexation of Texas as
a slave state prompted many northern abolitionists to leave the
party. This ensured victory for Democratic candidate James
K. Polk.
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Henry
Clay. |
James
K. Polk. |
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Whig candidate Zachary Taylor won the presidency four years later
but his opposition to admitting California into the Union prompted
debates over what would be known as the Compromise of 1850. Taylor
died in the midst of the debate and his successor, Millard Fillmore,
supported the Compromise despite objections from within the party.
The debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which nullified
the ban on slavery in U.S. territories established by the Missouri
Compromise of 1820, ultimately caused the remaining members of
the Whig Party to split and join the Democrats, the new Republican
Party, or the anti-immigrant Know-Nothing Party.
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Searches on
Whig and Democrat provide a number of portraits of various
Congressmen associated with both parties. These portraits can be organized
according to political affiliation and used to create an illustrative
timeline documenting the rise and fall of the Whig Party.
Historical Analysis and Interpretation: Portraiture
Mary
Ann Bartlett. |
- What are the similarities and differences between the portraits
of these different types of people?
- What do the subjects' clothing suggest about their occupations
and social status?
- What do the subjects' poses and props (or lack thereof) suggest
about their occupations and social status?
- Do the captions shed any light on the subjects and their status?
- How do these portraits compare to the collection's images
of politicians and authors?
- How do you think that these visual details influenced the
way viewers responded to the images?
- What kinds of values would you expect the society that created
these portraits to have had?
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Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making: The Rise of
Photography to an Art
| The business potential
of the new daguerreotype technology attracted many tradespeople
who, once having acquired the right equipment, needed only to acquire
a new skill. Even amateur photographers could make a profit as itinerant
daguerreotypists, selling inexpensive portraits in one town after
another. Many former jewelers and druggists had an understanding
of chemistry which aided them in photography but they lacked any
kind of artistic training. Their photographs were often more affordable
than aesthetic. Given the proliferation of mediocre photographs,
the money-making motives of many early photographers, and the mechanical
nature of their medium, photography was considered inferior to the
true arts of painting and drawing. |
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Four
Shoemakers. |
Sam
Houston. |
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Mathew Brady was working as a jewel-case manufacturer in New York
City in the early 1840s when he learned the daguerreotype process. Brady soon
established himself as a portrait photographer with his New York City Daguerrean
Gallery. Brady longed to raise the status of photography to an art. He improved
the quality of his images to appeal to customers of high taste and sought out
only the most esteemed subjects. This collection contains hundreds of portraits
attributed to Brady's studios including images of President James
Buchanan, Senator Sam
Houston (Texas), and celebrities such as Tom
Thumb. |
Brady never operated the camera himself, but he posed his subjects
and made them feel comfortable in front of the camera. Brady was soon
heralded as the champion of a growing art form that not only reproduced
the subject's image, but also expressed the subject's true character.
By the 1860s,photographic technology had changed. The daguerreotype
was replaced with mass-produced paper prints. Small portraits, or cartes-de-visite,
were collected by the middle class and organized into albums. Brady
never liked these inexpensive portraits. copies. He preferred his Imperial
portraits, large-format portraits which were often retouched with inks
and paints to give them the uniqueness and status of paintings. The
uniqueness of the Imperials gave them a higher value, but one that was
not easily marketable. Eventually, Brady's business failed as he refused
to put aside his artistic pretensions to cater to middle-class customers.
Photograph
of a Framed Painting of an Unidentified Man. |
- What is the difference between art and a craft?
- Does the money-making motives of itinerant daguerreotypists
disqualify them from the status of artists? How does the creator's
motives relate to his or her status as an artist?
- Is the ability to draw an income from one's craft necessary
to qualify it as an art form?
- What does the fact that Brady was renowned for his design
of his portraits but did not have to operate the camera imply
about the role of the artist and the definition of art?
- What is the value of the artistic effort put into the design
of a work? What is the value of the effort put into the implementation
of the design in crafting the work? Is the value of one greater
than the other?
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- What is implied by the fact that the status of daguerreotype
portraits was elevated when they were thought to express the
subjects' inner characters? Does an image need to have moral
value in order to be considered art?
- Is the status of photography different from that of painting
or drawing because the image is created through a chemical and
mechanical process?
- Are the demands upon the photographer different from the demands
upon the painter or illustrator? If so, how? Does one medium
require more artistic skill than another?
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Historical Research Capabilities
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The portraits in this collection offer an ideal opportunity for
further biographical research. Images of renowned individuals
can be printed and organized by any number of themes such as politics,
presidents, authors, artists, or women. Relevant biographical
information can be placed on the back of each printed portrait
to create biographical flash cards that might include the following
details:
Name:
Political Affiliation:
Occupation:
Personal Achievements:
Professional Achievements:
Important Events:
Attributed Quotes:
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Asher
Brown Durand. |
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