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[Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, head-and-shoulders portrait of a woman, facing slightly left] – Antique Photo Print

[Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, head-and-shoulders portrait of a woman, facing slightly left], [between 1851 and 1860] — historic photograph
[Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, head-and-shoulders portrait of a woman, facing slightly left], [between 1851 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

[Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, head-and-shoulders portrait of a woman, facing slightly left] 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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[Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, head-and-shoulders portrait of a woman, facing slightly left]

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A head-and-shoulders daguerreotype of Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, mother of the poet Walt Whitman, shows her turned slightly to the left with a steady, unsmiling gaze typical of mid-century portraits, when sitters had to hold still through longer exposures. The plate sits in a plain leather case with a push-button closure, and its preserver is stamped with the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut, a major maker of such cases. The photographer is unidentified, but the image came to the Library of Congress through the Charles E. Feinberg Walt Whitman collection and was later shown in the library's exhibition *Revising Himself: Walt Whitman*.

Created / published[between 1851 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : quarter plate daguerreotype.
NotesPhotographer unidentified. Hallmark: Rinhart 9. Case: plain leather, push button. Preserver stamped with Waterbury Conn. No. 840. Scovill Mfg. Superior. Transfer; Manuscript Division; 1981; (DLC/PP-1981:378). Forms part of: Charles E. Feinberg Walt Whitman collection (Library of Congress). Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress). Exhibited: Revising Himself : Walt Whitman" at the Library of Congress
SubjectsWhitman, Louisa Van Velsor,--1795-1873.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,272 × 4,096 px · prints to 11 × 14 in at 300 dpi
Reference609_Louisa_Van_Velsor_Whitm_1851

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