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Miss Hodges of Salem

Photography Studio Southworth and Hawes American
ca. 1850
Not on view
This first photographic process, invented by Louis Daguerre (1798-1851), spread rapidly around the world after its public presentation in Paris in 1839. Exposed in a camera obscura and developed in mercury vapors, each highly polished silver plate is a one-of-a-kind photograph that, viewed in proper light, exhibits extraordinary detail and three-dimensionality. 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. Nothing is known today about Miss Hodges, but Southworth and Hawes made two costly whole-plate portraits of her for their studio collection, suggesting that she was sufficiently well known – or sufficiently photogenic – to warrant displaying her likeness in the front-room public gallery.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Miss Hodges of Salem
  • 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
  • Object Number: 37.14.20
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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