[Dawson & Douglass, State Street, New Haven, Connecticut]

With crisp precision, this daguerreotype delineates the clapboard siding, slatted shutters, and gridded window patterns on the exterior of a Connecticut general store. Proprietors Henry Dawson and Benjah Douglass sold their own confections and cigars, as well as goods they imported from the West Indies on a few trading ships. Their canned and bottled wares are just visible through the glass. In addition to the storefront’s bold signage, the shop initials, scrawled on a barrel before the entrance, act as an accidental logo.