Snapshots of the Past

[John Davis, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left] – Historic Photograph Print

[John Davis, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left], [between 1844 and 1860] — historic photograph
[John Davis, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left], [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 [John Davis, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left] brings a moment of history to your wall. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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[John Davis, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left]

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The inscription "Jno. Davis" scratched on the face of this half-plate daguerreotype is what ties the portrait to its sitter, John Davis (1787–1854), a Massachusetts lawyer who later served as governor and as a U.S. senator. The identification also rests on a mezzotint of Davis by P.M. Whelpley, published in the *American Review* in 1850, which shows how portraits of prominent men of the day were copied into print. The plate was made in Mathew Brady's studio, and its gold toning gives the silvered surface the warm tone that many of the period's finest portraits carried.

Created / published[between 1844 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : half plate daguerreotype, gold toned.
GenrePortrait photographs 1840-1860.Daguerreotypes 1840-1860.
NotesScratched on face of plate: 244; Jno. Davis. Scratched on back of plate: 453 Identification from mezzotint by P.M. Whelpley in American Review, 1850, v. 11, p. 113. Hallmark: [asterisk] Transfer; U.S. War College; 1920; (DLC/PP-1920:46153). Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress). Produced by Mathew Brady's studio.
SubjectsDavis, John,--1787-1854.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,218 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
Reference230_John_Davis_headandshoul_1844

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