[Man wearing eyeglasses]
Photograph
[Man wearing eyeglasses]
ca. 1850
Daguerreotype
Image: 3 × 2 1/2 in. (7.6 × 6.4 cm) (1/6 plate)
Case: 3 3/4 × 3 1/8 × 5/8 in. (9.5 × 7.9 × 1.6 cm)
Purchase
1969.0200.0039
Inscriptions Inscribed in pen on applied label on spine of case: 443
Engraved on mat, BRC: PLUMBE
Entry 443 in Mackay's notebook (located in library): Beautiful daguerreotype of handsome unknown man with curls and square-rimmed spectacles. Taken by famous photographer John Plumbe. He was a civil Engineer who laid out some of our earliest railroads, and started making daguerreotypes in 1840. He was the first American photographer to gain national distinction. Prof. Robert Taft writes much about him in his big book of American photography, also in article by him in “American Photography” for Jan. 1936 in my scrapbook. He had 15 galleries three out East by 1845, but went bankrupt in 1847. Committed suicide in 1857. His daguerreotypes were all very early ones (before 1847) so there are almost none to be found. Taft says there are none available, so when one is found it is a rarity. Mine is in perfect preservation (2.00)
Engraved on mat, BRC: PLUMBE
Entry 443 in Mackay's notebook (located in library): Beautiful daguerreotype of handsome unknown man with curls and square-rimmed spectacles. Taken by famous photographer John Plumbe. He was a civil Engineer who laid out some of our earliest railroads, and started making daguerreotypes in 1840. He was the first American photographer to gain national distinction. Prof. Robert Taft writes much about him in his big book of American photography, also in article by him in “American Photography” for Jan. 1936 in my scrapbook. He had 15 galleries three out East by 1845, but went bankrupt in 1847. Committed suicide in 1857. His daguerreotypes were all very early ones (before 1847) so there are almost none to be found. Taft says there are none available, so when one is found it is a rarity. Mine is in perfect preservation (2.00)
