Unidentified man, daguerreotype portrait, about 1850 – Antique Photo Print
(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: Unidentified man, daguerreotype portrait, about 1850, preserved in this historic photograph. Drawn from the Snapshots of the Past archive, it is an authentic piece of documented history.
The framed print arrives ready to hang; the unframed option suits custom framing. A conversation-starting piece for home, office, or as a meaningful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
Unidentified man, daguerreotype portrait, about 1850
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A quarter-plate-style daguerreotype from about 1850 shows a man whose name has been lost, so the picture rests entirely on what the image itself reveals. Daguerreotypes were one-of-a-kind positives made on silvered copper plates, and their mirror-like surface means the view shifts with the light and the viewer's angle. Portraits of this period usually required subjects to sit still for many seconds in strong light, which explains the stiff, composed expressions common to the era. Because the sitter is unidentified, the portrait speaks to the rapid spread of photographic portraiture in the early 1850s, when studios made such likenesses accessible to ordinary working and middle-class people.
| Created / published | 1850 |
|---|---|
| Original scan | 3,292 × 4,096 px · prints to 11 × 14 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | 654_Unidentified_man_about_1850 |
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