Snapshots of the Past

[Portrait of the Prime family] – Historic Photo Reproduction

[Portrait of the Prime family], 1852 Oct. — historic photograph
[Portrait of the Prime family], 1852 Oct.. 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

A window into the past: [Portrait of the Prime family], preserved in this historic photograph. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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[Portrait of the Prime family]

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A whole-plate daguerreotype from October 1852 is still in its plain leather case, with a label inside bearing the name of Julia Germain Prime. Among the sitters is Edward Irenaeus Prime, who lived only from 1847 to 1849, so the portrait also preserves the memory of a child the family lost young. Daguerreotypes were made on silvered copper plates, producing a sharp, mirror-like image that shows best when tilted against the light. By 1852 the process was giving way to paper-based photography, and a sitting like this one was a costly, carefully arranged keepsake.

Created / published1852 Oct.
Medium1 photograph : whole-plate daguerreotype.
Genrepicture of Eddie Prime (died as a child)
NotesCase: plain leather. Label adhered to velvet inside case: Julia Germain Prime
SubjectsPrime, Samuel Irenaeus,--1812-1855. Prime, Julia Germain,--1789-1874. Prime, Wendell,--b. 1837. Prime, Edward Irenaeus,--1847-1849. Prime, Eloisa Lemet Williams,--1812-1894. Prime, Samuel Thorton Kemeys,--1834-1907. Prime, Nathaniel S. (Nathaniel Scudder),--1785-1856. Stoddard, Mary Elizabeth Prime,--b. 1839.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan5,000 × 4,016 px · prints to 17 × 13 in at 300 dpi
Reference624_Portrait_of_the_Prime_f_1852

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