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[William McKendree Gwin, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the right] – Historic Photograph Print

[William McKendree Gwin, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the right], [between 1844 and 1860] — historic photograph
[William McKendree Gwin, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the right], [between 1844 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

[William McKendree Gwin, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the right] comes to life in this historic photograph, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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[William McKendree Gwin, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the right]

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Few daguerreotypes of early California officials survive, and this half-length portrait shows William McKendree Gwin, one of the state's first two U.S. senators after California joined the Union in 1850. The back of the plate is inscribed "Sen. Gwin, Calif.," and the image was made in the Mathew Brady studio sometime between 1844 and 1860. Gwin, a Tennessee-born Democrat, was a prominent figure in the politics of the Gold Rush era, and the plate's gold toning helps preserve the sitter's crisp detail. It came to the Library of Congress in 1920 by transfer from the U.S. War College.

Created / published[between 1844 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : half plate daguerreotype, gold toned.
GenrePortrait photographs 1840-1860.Daguerreotypes 1840-1860.
NotesWritten on back of plate: 197; Sen. Gwin, Calif. Hallmark: 40?. Transfer; U.S. War College; 1920; (DLC/PP-1920:46153). Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress). Produced by Mathew Brady's studio.
SubjectsGwin, William McKendree,--1805-1885.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,152 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
Reference546_William_McKendree_Gwin_1844

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