[Emlen Cresson, his mother Sarah Emlen Cresson, his wife Priscilla Prichett Cresson, and his mother-in-law Mrs. Edith Hatten Prichett in a group family portrait]

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This March 1844 daguerreotype shows Emlen Cresson posed with his mother, Sarah Emlen Cresson, and with his wife, Priscilla Prichett Cresson, and her mother, Edith Hatten Prichett, which makes it a family portrait rather than a single sitting. Group portraits were less common than individual or paired sittings at the time, since a daguerreotype was a considerable expense. Exposures in the 1840s still ran from several seconds to minutes, so every sitter had to hold still, and the stiff, formal postures reflect that demand. The bowl-of-flowers design on the case was a common decorative pattern, and it reminds us that these images were kept in small cases and handled as keepsakes.

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