Multiple Exposures of the Moon: Nine Exposures Ranging from Two Minutes to Half a Second

September 1, 1849
Not on view
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.
In the 1840s and 1850s, celestial photography was a major subject of research at Harvard College Observatory, home to what was then the largest telescope in North America. Beginning in 1849, Observatory Director William Cranch Bond partnered with Whipple, a local photographer, to produce a stunning series of lunar daguerreotypes, of which this is one example. From a selection of the small images, they produced copy daguerreotype enlargements that were exhibited to acclaim at London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. That year, Whipple also accomplished the feat of recording a solar eclipse.


Humphrey, a New York portrait photographer, sent the experimental lunar daguerreotype here to Harvard’s president during the same era. The plate records nine different exposures, demonstrating that a shorter exposure time produced a sharper image.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Multiple Exposures of the Moon: Nine Exposures Ranging from Two Minutes to Half a Second
  • Artist: Samuel Dwight Humphrey (American, Hartland, Connecticut 1823–1883 Tower City, North Dakota)
  • Date: September 1, 1849
  • Medium: Daguerreotype
  • Dimensions: Image: 1 9/16 × 1 3/16 in. (4 × 3 cm)
    Case (open): 3 9/16 × 6 5/16 in. (9.1 × 16 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: John G. Wolbach Library, Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Mass. (OB-1)
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs