The original members of the Hutchinson Family Singers were thirteen of the sixteen children of Jesse and Mary Hutchinson of Milford, New Hampshire. The eleven sons and two daughters made their singing debut in the late 1830s and at first sang sentimental, patriotic tunes celebrating the virtues of rural life. In 1842, however, they began to associate closely with the abolitionists, and soon their repertory of songs championed such reformist causes as temperance, women's rights, and above all, the abolition of slavery. Both praised and vilified by the press and public, America's first group of social protest folk singers performed throughout the country for more than fifty years.
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Title:[Hutchinson Family Singers]
Artist:Unknown
Date:1845
Medium:Daguerreotype
Dimensions:Image: 14.4 x 19.7 cm (5 11/16 x 7 3/4 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number:2005.100.77
Inscription: Inscribed on frame, verso: The Hutchinson Family Brothers // Taken in 1844"
[Larry Gottheim]; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, March 15, 1988
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," May 25–July 4, 1993.
Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," August 7–October 2, 1993.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," June 19–September 11, 1994.
Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery. "Secrets of the Dark Chamber: The Art of the American Daguerreotype," June 30, 1995–October 29, 1995.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "1846: Portrait of the Nation," April 12, 1996–August 18, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portraits: A Century of Photographs," September 10, 2002–January 13, 2003.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Old Faces and Places: American Photographs, 1845-1870," February 3–April 25, 2004.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 41a," August 15–October 3, 2005.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 41b," October 3, 2005–January 8, 2006.
Hutchinson, John W. Story of the Hutchinsons, edited by Charles E. Mann. Vol. 1. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896. p. 137.
Hambourg, Maria Morris, Pierre Apraxine, Malcolm Daniel, Virginia Heckert, and Jeff L. Rosenheim. The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 91.
Foresta, Merry A., and John Wood. Secrets of the Dark Chamber: The Art of the American Daguerreotype. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, 1995. p. 80.
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![[Hutchinson Family Singers], Unknown, Daguerreotype](/Rodan/dist/svg/rolling-0.9s-30px.svg "Bare plate")
