Snapshots of the Past

[Unidentified portrait] – Vintage Photo Print

[Unidentified portrait], [between 1844 and 1860] — historic photograph
[Unidentified 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

[Unidentified portrait] 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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[Unidentified portrait]

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What sets this plate apart is that no image is visible on its surface, only a mirror-like silver field, and a number, 242, is scratched into the back. The Library of Congress records it as a 1920 transfer from the U.S. War College, before it entered the national collection. Daguerreotypes were made in the United States from the mid-1840s through the 1850s, when the process was the leading form of photography. Many were toned with gold to strengthen and warm the silver image, but the plates were fragile, and an image can fade or tarnish until little remains to see.

Created / published[between 1844 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : half plate daguerreotype, gold toned.
GenrePortrait photographs 1840-1860.Daguerreotypes 1840-1860.
NotesPhotographer unidentified. No image visible. Scratched on back of plate: 242. Transfer; U.S. War College; 1920; (DLC/PP-1920:46153). Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress).
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,317 × 4,096 px · prints to 11 × 14 in at 300 dpi
Reference486_Unidentified_portrait_1844

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