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[James McDowell, half-length portrait, three-quarters to left] – Historic Photo Reproduction

[James McDowell, half-length portrait, three-quarters to left], [between 1844 and 1860] — historic photograph
[James McDowell, half-length portrait, three-quarters to left], [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

Few images capture their era like this historic photograph of [James McDowell, half-length portrait, three-quarters to left]. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.

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[James McDowell, half-length portrait, three-quarters to left]

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James McDowell, the Virginia politician who served in Congress and as governor of Virginia from 1843 to 1846, sits in this half-length daguerreotype turned three-quarters to the left. The image was produced in Mathew Brady's studio, one of the busiest portrait operations of the 1840s and 1850s, when sitters paid for a sharp, mirror-bright likeness on silvered copper. The plate has been gold toned, a step that strengthened the image and warmed its shadows. Numbers scratched into its face and back suggest an early owner or cataloguer marked it, and its 1920 transfer to the U.S. War College explains how it reached the Library of Congress.

Created / published[between 1844 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : half plate daguerreotype, gold toned.
GenrePortrait photographs 1840-1860.Daguerreotypes 1840-1860.
NotesScratched on face of plate: 236; McDowell. Scratched on back of plate: 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.
SubjectsMcDowell, James,--1795-1851.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,246 × 4,096 px · prints to 11 × 14 in at 300 dpi
Reference224_James_McDowell_halfleng_1844

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