Untitled (Baby in White Chair)
1850s
Medium
Photography-Photoprint
Classification
Photography-Photoprint
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro
Accession Number
2000.83.64
Art Historical Context
**Untitled (Baby in White)**, captured by artist Collins in the 1850s, offers a charming glimpse into early American photography. This photoprint, in the Smithsonian American Art's collection, exemplifies the medium's rapid evolution during the mid-19th century. Photography was still a novel technology, transitioning from cumbersome daguerreotypes to more reproducible paper prints, allowing families to preserve precious moments like this tender portrait of a baby seated a white chair. The image's historical significance lies in its reflection of domestic life in antebellum America, where port...
About the Artist
Collins (British) · 1735 –1768
British, 1735?–1768