Snapshots of the Past

General Post Office fro – Vintage Wall Art

General Post Office fro, 1846 — historic photograph
General Post Office fro, 1846. Historic photograph from the Daguerreotypes & Early Photography collection.

(Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare historic photograph captures General Post Office fro in remarkable detail. It is part of the Snapshots of the Past archive, gathered over 25 years of research.

Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. It makes a striking addition to a living room, study or office, and a thoughtful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.

General Post Office fro

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The title breaks off after "from," so the exact vantage point of this view of the General Post Office is not clear from the record. Made in 1846, it is a daguerreotype, a process that produced a single mirror-like image on a silvered copper plate and required exposures lasting minutes. That long wait is why busy streets in early views often look empty or ghostly, since moving carriages and pedestrians left little trace. Post offices of the period were prominent civic buildings, so a picture like this also documents how public architecture and city life appeared before photography became fast and common.

Created / published1846
Original scan1,377 × 1,099 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
Reference9_General_Post_Office_fro_1846

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Snapshots of the Past helps heritage brands, museums, historians and storytellers tell stories with history: historic prints, image licensing and historical storytelling drawn from more than 25 years of research and curation.

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