Parade Marshal, Dayton, Ohio
Medium
daguerreotype
Dimensions
image (visible): 8.8 × 7.6 cm (3 7/16 × 3 in.) mat: 10.2 × 9 cm (4 × 3 9/16 in.) framed: 25.6 × 24 × 4.5 cm (10 1/16 × 9 7/16 × 1 3/4 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund
Accession Number
2015.57.1
Art Historical Context
Step into the dawn of photography with *Parade Marshal, Dayton Ohio* (1846), a daguerreotype that freezes a moment from mid-19th-century. This petite image, measuring just 8.8 × 7.6 cm, depicts a stern yet proud figure—likely a local leader in formal attire—poised amid the civic pomp of Dayton, a bustling Ohio river town on the rise. As one of the earliest photographic mediums, the daguerreotype produces a singular, mirror-like positive on a silvered copper plate, gleaming with intricate detail under the right light. Invented in 1839 by Louis Daguerre, this process revolutionized portraiture ...
About the Artist
American 19th Century
The artist cataloged as "American, 19th Century" represents a collective of unidentified painters active in the United States during the nineteenth century, with 380 known artworks preserved in this virtual museum's collection. These works span a diverse array of genres typical of the era, including portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and genre scenes, reflecting the burgeoning artistic output of ...