The catalogue's atmospheric illustrations capture the rich tonal nuance of daguerreotypes, reclaiming their rightful place in the American visual arts of the period.

Scenic daguerreotypes, made over 175 years ago, are extremely rare today. Named after Louis Daguerre (1787-1851), daguerreotypes are the first widely practised type of photography, quite unlike any other: the result it is both an image and object, a unique vestige of its time and place. The selection presented here is almost entirely drawn from the private collection of American collector Greg French, who built it over a 40-year period into probably the largest of its kind. The types of scenery captured in these beautiful outdoor views are not limited to traditional landscapes: they include store fronts, hotels, cityscapes and cemeteries; rivers, waterfalls, ships and shipyards; schools, churches, houses and backyards; landscapes, farms, factories and gold mines; but also daguerreotype studios, railroads, marching bands and more. Together, these images build the fascinating picture of a young country not yet invaded by asphalt and concrete, metal poles, wires, cell-phone towers, traffic signs and cars.

Some noteworthy highlights include a Cincinnati street scene by the African American daguerreotypist James Presley Ball, his only known surviving outdoor view; the only outdoor daguerreotype taken by a woman, Charlotte Prosch; a California gold-mining scene by George H. Johnson; and a rare view of 1850 San Francisco taken from Telegraph Hill. The selection also includes what can be considered the earliest pure landscape photograph in America, a whole plate daguerreotype made in 1840-41 by Samuel Bemis.
The original aim of many of these views is not always clear. Though many were probably taken for documentary or commercial purposes, their complexity and mystery warrant more careful, in-depth observation. What appear at first glance to be simple records of places or buildings are, in fact, windows into the daguerreotypists' unique visual perspective as they explored this innovative technique. The daguerrean process was central to the finished image, and the results are a significant Nativist phenomenon in the American visual arts, well worthy of being considered along with the paintings and sculpture of the 1840s and '50s.

With an essay by the preeminent daguerrean scholar Grant Romer and notes on the plates by the exhibition curator Allen Phillips, the catalogue aims to bring about an advanced understanding of this significant manifestation of nationality in the pictorial arts. Despite the dearth of surviving evidence, the rare and splendid pictures presented here illustrate how the daguerreotype process creates works that are amazing in their delicately long tonal range. They can be tonally soft and contrasty as well as optically soft and sharp at the same time. To showcase this, the daguerreotypes have been reproduced with great care: they have not been digitally improved and are shown with all the defects of production and age; tarnish, spots and scratches are not obfuscated. Much of what these daguerreotypes say has no equivalent in the digital world, so each reproduction has been closely tailored to the individual qualities of the original: each daguerreotype needed to be read and understood before any translation was possible.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford CT
10 July 2025 - 25 January 2026

Published by Paul Holberton Publishin