The Daguerreotype process made its debut in 1839, and quickly spread throughout the world. It involved developing images on highly polished sheets of silver-plated copper; generally small in size, they were difficult to view because of their highly reflective surfaces. Each one was a unique image, as there was no negative. Daguerreotypes quickly gained unrivaled popularity in America in the 1840s, especially for portraits, and the Boston firm of Southworth and Hawes established itself as one of the medium’s leading practitioners.
Albert Southworth (1811–1894) first learned of the process in 1840 in Boston when he attended a series of lectures by a pupil of Daguerre, and was intrigued by the possibilities of the new medium. He teamed up with Joseph Pennell, who had introduced Southworth to Samuel F.B. Morse in New York, one of the first people in America to offer instruction on the process. Southworth then commenced an extensive series of photographic and technological experiments.
In 1840, Southworth and Pennell established a Daguerreotype studio where they produced small images with a revolutionary three-minute subject sitting time. By using chemical accelerators, Southworth created shorter exposure times. Most studios required sittings lasting between fifteen and twenty-five minutes, and the bright light required would often result in their subjects having to close their eyes.
In 1842, Southworth moved the studio to Boston in hopes of attracting the business of the city’s socially elite. When Pennell left a year later, Southworth established a partnership with Josiah Hawes (1808–1901), and the pair achieved unparalleled artistic success with their Daguerreotypes. They invented and patented photographic equipment, including the Grand Parlor Stereoscope, noted for its ability to capture near perfect images. Groundbreaking, the device was constructed with a set of mirrors placed at 45 degree angles from the viewer’s sight which reflected two slightly different binocular images. Equally impressive was its size that made it possible to create larger images. Most Daguerreotype cameras were scaled for small sixth-plate images that were 2¾ by 3¼ inches in size, whereas the Grand Parlor Stereoscope could produce whole plate images that were 6½ by 8½ inches. Southworth and Hawes worked together for two decades until Southworth left in 1863. Hawes, married to Southworth’s sister Nancy, remained in business, creating portraits and views of Boston until his death.
The Daguerreotype process required specific conditions, including a room with abundant natural light from large windows positioned in accordance to the orientation of the sun, ideally on an upper floor with clear and unobstructed views, away from the shadows of other buildings. Other spaces were devoted to preparing and developing the plates, putting the images in cases, as well as providing a comfortable room for receiving clients and business transactions. The elegant furnishings could not only be used as props for their portraits, but also created an atmosphere of sophistication and taste.
Their technological advances enabled the Southworth and Hawes studio to be exceptionally productive, and they became famous for the high quality and imaginative poses of their portraits. The expressions and poses seen in work by their contemporaries tended to be wooden and stiff, in part due to the long exposure times and special chairs equipped with neck
braces to keep their subjects still. But Southworth and Hawes produced images of stunning clarity, beautifully lit, and showed a close attention to texture and detail, revealing the intriguing personalities of their sitters. The individuals who sat for their cameras represented the nineteenth century American cultural, economic, and political elite, and included writers, statesmen, scientists, actors, actresses and musicians. Southworth understood what made an effective portrait:
What is to be done is obliged to be done quickly. The whole character of the sitter is to be read at first sight; the whole likeness, as it shall appear when finished, is to be seen at first, in each and all its details, and in their unity and combination. Natural and accidental defects are to be separated from natural and possible perfections; these latter to obliterate or hide the former. Nature is not at all to be represented as it is, but as it ought to be, and might possibly have been; and it is required of and should be the aim of the artist photographer to produce in the likeness the best possible character and finest expression of which that particular face or figure could ever have been capable. But in the result there is to be no departure from truth in the delineation and representation of beauty, and expression, and character.1
Their technological and aesthetic expertise is evident in the Daguerreotype in the Solari Foundation Collection, which is a sixth-plate portrait of a girl. Children were often challenging to photograph as they had a hard time sitting still for the two to five seconds that posing required. Southworth observed that “if they are quiet and pleasant,” then their portraits “are beautifully taken. If uneasy and restless, a good likeness can be made.”2 Southworth commented on how best to pose them: “As a good rule, let the frock be very low in the neck, with a short waist, not tight, yet fitting the form, reaching to the foot; the sleeves very loose, ornamented with narrow lace. The skirt should be of woolen fabric, not too full, reaching about half-way from the knee to the ankle.”3 The firm clearly paid meticulous attention to detail. The girl sits relaxed, looking to her left with soft curls framing her face. The informality of her pose may be seen in the small bit of petticoat showing from under the hem of her dress. Altogether it is a charming image of childhood.
Georgina Madrigal
Albert Sands Southworth & Josiah Johnson Hawes, Untitled, c. 1850, Daguerreotype, 8.3 x 7 cm, SOLARI 94.049.001L