Daniel Webster (1782-1852) was one of nineteenth-century America's most imposing figures, a statesman and orator of staggering power and erudition. He sat for this portrait just one month before his controversial speech in support of the Compromise of 1850, which allowed fugitive slaves to be returned to their owners, a stance which subsequently contributed to Webster's political downfall. Southworth & Hawes' monumental depiction seems to embody Carlyle's opinion that "as a logic fencer, advocate, or parliamentary Hercules, one would incline to back [Webster] at first sight against all the extant world."
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Daniel Webster
Photography Studio:Southworth and Hawes (American, active 1843–1863)
Artist:Albert Sands Southworth (American, West Fairlee, Vermont 1811–1894 Charlestown, Massachusetts)
Artist: Josiah Johnson Hawes (American, Wayland, Massachusetts 1808–1901 Crawford Notch, New Hampshire)
Date:ca. 1850
Medium:Daguerreotype
Dimensions:21.5 x 16.6 cm (8 7/16 x 6 9/16 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gift of I. N. Phelps Stokes, Edward S. Hawes, Alice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes, 1937
Accession Number:37.14.2
Inscription: Inscribed in pencil, verso: "Original"
Marking: Hallmark TR: Doublé / J.P. [see Spirit of Fact (Sobieszek and Appel, 1976) #9, p. 153]
Edward S. Hawes, Alice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes; [Holman's Print Shop, Boston]; I.N. Phelps Stokes, New York
In interviews later in life, Josiah Hawes always maintained that Webster posed for this portrait before delivering his Revere House speech. The date repeated in the literature is April 22, 1850. The actual date of the speech was April 22, 1851. Webster had been denied the use of Faneuil Hall for a meeting, so the enraged Secratery of State spoke from his hotel balcony at the Revere House, not far from the Southworth & Hawes studio. The famous speech defended Webster's compromise position on the Fugitive Slave Law , and included the famous line "Union, union, union-Now and forever!"
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Daguerreotypes and Photographs (Centenary of the Invention of Photography)," November 4–December 7, 1939.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Thirty Photographers: A Selection from the Museum's Collection," April 12–June 1, 1969.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography," May 7, 1989–July 30, 1989.
Art Institute of Chicago. "On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography," September 16, 1989–November 26, 1989.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography," December 21, 1989–February 25, 1990.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 11," November 13, 1995–March 11, 1996.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Old Faces and Places: American Photographs, 1845-1870," February 3–April 25, 2004.
International Center of Photography. "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes," June 17, 2005–September 4, 2005.
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes," October 1, 2005–January 8, 2006.
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy. "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes," January 28, 2006–April 9, 2006.
Stokes, Isaac Newton Phelps. The Hawes-Stokes Collection of American Daguerreotypesby Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1939. p. 330.
Sobieszek, Robert A., and Odette M. Appel. The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes, 1843–1862. Rochester: George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, 1976.
Greenough, Sarah. On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography. 1st ed. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1989. pl. 16.
Moore, Charles LeRoy. "Expression: The Soul of the Daguerreotype." The Daguerreian Annual (1997). no. 6, pp. 1–25.
Romer, Grant B., and Brian Wallis, ed. Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes. New York: George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, 2005. no. 345.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's Department of Photographs houses a collection of more than 75,000 works spanning the history of photography from its invention in the 1830s to the present.
