Snapshots of the Past

[Henry Clay, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front] – Antique Photo Print

[Henry Clay, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front], [between 1850 and 1852] — historic photograph
[Henry Clay, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front], [between 1850 and 1852]. Historic photograph from the Historic Print Archive 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

A window into the past: [Henry Clay, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front], preserved in this historic photograph. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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[Henry Clay, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front]

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A half-plate daguerreotype of Henry Clay, shown head-and-shoulders and facing the camera, came out of Mathew Brady's studio sometime between 1850 and 1852. Clay was then deep in the debates over the Compromise of 1850, the package of measures meant to settle disputes over slavery in the western territories, and he died in 1852 before those tensions eased. The plate's identification rests on an inscription scratched on its back and on a later engraving by William G. Jackman that credits Brady, a reminder of how daguerreotype portraits of public figures often reached the public through engravings.

Created / published[between 1850 and 1852]
Medium1 photograph : half plate daguerreotype.
GenrePortrait photographs 1850-1860.Daguerreotypes 1850-1860.
NotesScratched on back of plate: 135; Henry Clay. Identification from engraving by William G. Jackman with daguerrean credit to Brady, Reproduced in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, v. 1 (New York: 1887, opp. pg. 641). Facing the light / H. Pfister. Washington : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978, p. 307. Transfer; U.S. War College; 1920; (DLC/PP-1920:46153). Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress). Produced by Mathew Brady's studio.
SubjectsClay, Henry,--1777-1852.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,283 × 4,096 px · prints to 11 × 14 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-186367

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