Brady's Daguerreotypes
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of George S. Whiteley IV
Accession Number
AD/NPG.2015.3
Tags
About this artwork
Mathew Brady placed this full-page advertisement in the Illustrated American Biography, a publication that marketed itself as a biographical volume but was actually a glorified business directory. With its cutaway image of a camera, Brady’s ad presents a fanciful view of the process by which sunlight passes through the camera’s lens to produce an image.
Art Historical Context
In 1854, this full-page print advertisement, titled *Brady's Daguerre*, captures the entrepreneurial spirit of pioneering photographer Mathew B. Brady. Placed in the *Illustrated American Biography*—a clever marketing ploy disguised as a biographical compendium—it promoted Brady's daguerreotype studio amid the photography boom of the mid-19th. Daguerreotypes, the era's premier photographic process using silvered copper plates exposed to light, were revolutionizing portraiture and documentation, making Brady a household name before his famed Civil War images. The unidentified artist's design f...