Snapshots of the Past

[Unidentified man with spectacles, half-length portrait] – Historic Photo Reproduction

[Unidentified man with spectacles, half-length portrait], [between 1844 and 1860] — historic photograph
[Unidentified man with spectacles, half-length portrait], [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

This historic photograph of [Unidentified man with spectacles, half-length portrait] brings a moment of history to your wall. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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[Unidentified man with spectacles, half-length portrait]

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A half-plate daguerreotype shows an unidentified man in spectacles, framed from the waist up, with his name lost to the record. The number 163 scratched on the back of the plate suggests it was logged as part of a larger series. It was made in Mathew Brady's studio, the New York operation behind many of the period's best-known portraits, and it reached the Library of Congress in 1920 by transfer from the U.S. War College. Sitters of the 1840s and 1850s had to hold still for exposures that could run to many seconds, and the sharp, mirror-bright surface of the plate shows how much detail that patience could capture.

Created / published[between 1844 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : half plate daguerreotype.
GenrePortrait photographs 1840-1860.Daguerreotypes 1840-1860.
NotesScratched on back of plate: 163. Transfer; U.S. War College; 1920; (DLC/PP-1920:46153). Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress). Produced by Mathew Brady's studio.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,274 × 4,096 px · prints to 11 × 14 in at 300 dpi
Reference354_Unidentified_man_with_s_1844

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