Untitled (Girl with Ringlets Holding Daguerreotype)
1840s
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
2000.83.29
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the 1840s, as photography burst onto the American scene, this untitled photoprint captured a charming moment: an unidentified young girl with cascading ringlets gazes at us while cradling a daguerreotype in her hands Donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum Charles Isaacs and Carolro, this image exemplifies the era's fascination with the new medium, where families eagerly documented their loved ones in stiff, formal poses. Theuerreotype she holds—a direct positive image on a silvered copper plate, invented by Louis Daguerre in 1839—highlights photography's meteoric rise. By the 1840s...
About the Artist
Unidentified ( ) · –