Snapshots of the Past

[James Skivring Smith, three-quarter length portrait, three-quarters view, seated at desk] – Antique Photo Print

[James Skivring Smith, three-quarter length portrait, three-quarters view, seated at desk], [between 1856 and 1860] — historic photograph
[James Skivring Smith, three-quarter length portrait, three-quarters view, seated at desk], [between 1856 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

Step back in time with [James Skivring Smith, three-quarter length portrait, three-quarters view, seated at desk], a historic photograph rich in period detail. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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[James Skivring Smith, three-quarter length portrait, three-quarters view, seated at desk]

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Seated at a desk and turned three-quarters from the camera, the sitter is identified on the back of this sixth-plate daguerreotype as Doctor J. S. Smith, senator from Bassa County. Bassa was one of the counties of Liberia, the West African colony that the American Colonization Society, organized in 1817, helped establish as a destination for African Americans. The photographer is unidentified, but the plate was later shown in an exhibition on Augustus Washington, a Black daguerreotypist, and it now survives among the American Colonization Society records at the Library of Congress.

Created / published[between 1856 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : sixth plate daguerreotype.
GenrePortrait photographs 1850-1860.Daguerreotypes 1850-1860.
NotesPhotographer unidentified. Hallmark: Rinhart 20a. Written on back plate: Doctor J. S. Smith, Senator from Bassa Co. Transfer; Manuscript Division. Forms part of: American Colonization Society Records, 1792-1964 (Library of Congress). Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress). The American Colonization Society was organized in 1817 to resettle Afro-Americans in Liberia. Exhibited: A durable memento: Portraits by Augustus Washington, African American daguerreotypist.
SubjectsSmith, J. S. (James Skivring),--b. ca. 1825.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,330 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
Reference599_James_Skivring_Smith_th_1856

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