Daguerreotypy, the first photographic process, spread around the world after its inventor Louis Daguerre (1787-1851) presented it to the public in 1839. Exposed in a camera obscura and developed in mercury vapors, each highly polished silvered-copper plate is a unique photograph that exhibits extraordinary detail and three-dimensionality when viewed in proper light. While the Boston partnership of Southworth and Hawes produced the finest portrait daguerreotypes in America for a clientele that included leading political, intellectual, and artistic figures, the firm also made a limited number of exterior and interior views outside their controlled studio setting. This daguerreotype shows the most prominent school for young women in Boston, established in 1823 by George Barrell Emerson, second cousin of the poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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Title:Classroom in the Emerson School for Girls
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:21.6 x 16.5 cm (8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gift of I. N. Phelps Stokes, Edward S. Hawes, Alice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes, 1937
Accession Number:37.14.22
Marking: Hallmark, BR: B.F. 40 [see Spirit of Fact (Sobieszek and Appel, 1976) #5, p.152]
Edward S. Hawes, Alice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes, or Edward S. Hawes, Alice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes; [Holman's Print Shop, Boston]; I.N. Phelps Stokes, New York, 1937
This plate is the right half of a stereo pair (Young America cat no. 1735)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Daguerreotypes and Photographs (Centenary of the Invention of Photography)," November 4–December 7, 1939.
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. "The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerreotype of Southworth & Hawes, 1843–1862," February 1976–June 1976.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerreotype of Southworth & Hawes, 1843–1862," July 1976–December 1976.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerreotype of Southworth & Hawes, 1843–1862," January 1977–February 1977.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Art of Photography 1839-1989," February 11, 1989–April 30, 1989.
Canberra. National Gallery of Australia. "The Art of Photography 1839-1989," June 17, 1989–August 27, 1989.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "The Art of Photography 1839-1989," September 23, 1989–December 23, 1989.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 5," June 14–August 28, 1994.
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. fig. 24.
Moore, Charles LeRoy. "Two Partners in Boston: The Careers and Daguerreian Artistry of Albert Southworth and Josiah Hawes." Master's thesis, University of Michigan, 1975. no. 25.
Newhall, Beaumont. The Daguerreotype in America. 3rd Revised ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1976. no. 57.
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. no. 78.
Ackley, Clifford S. The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes, 1843–1862. Illustrated Catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 19 through March 20, 1977. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1977. no. 78.
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. 1734.
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