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[R. McGill, full-length portrait, seated in chair, facing front, with textile screen in background] – Vintage Wall Art

[R. McGill, full-length portrait, seated in chair, facing front, with textile screen in background], [between 1840 and 1860] — historic photograph
[R. McGill, full-length portrait, seated in chair, facing front, with textile screen in background], [between 1840 and 1860]. Historic photograph from the Daguerreotypes & Early Photography collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

[R. McGill, full-length portrait, seated in chair, facing front, with textile screen in background] comes to life in this historic photograph, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.

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[R. McGill, full-length portrait, seated in chair, facing front, with textile screen in background]

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A full-length daguerreotype of R. McGill shows him seated in a chair, facing the camera, against a textile backdrop. A handwritten note with the plate says he was born in Baltimore and died at Cape Palmas, where he served as one of the original trustees of the Hall Free School. The American Colonization Society, founded in 1817 to resettle free Black Americans in Liberia, kept the image among its records, which links a studio portrait to that migration and the settlements it produced. Although the photographer is unidentified, the seated pose and draped backdrop reflect common conventions of 1840s and 1850s studio portraiture, when long exposures required sitters to hold still.

Created / published[between 1840 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : quarter plate daguerreotype.
GenrePortrait photographs 1840-1860.Daguerreotypes 1840-1860.
NotesPhotographer unidentified. Case: similar to Rinhart 123. Accompanying hand-written note: R... McGill born in Baltimore, died at Cape Palmas. One of the original trustees of Hall Free School at Cape Palmas. Transfer; Manuscript Division. Forms part of: American Colonization Society Records, 1792-1964 (Library of Congress). Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress). The American Colonization Society was organized in 1817 to resettle Afro-Americans in Liberia.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,285 × 4,096 px · prints to 11 × 14 in at 300 dpi
Reference292_R_McGill_fulllength_por_1840

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