Untitled (Group Portrait of Men and Women)
Medium
Daguerreotype
Dimensions
10.9 × 14.1 cm (4 5/16 × 5 9/16 in.); Open case: 15.2 × 24.2 × 1.2 cm (6 × 9 9/16 × 1/2 in.); Case: 15.2 × 12.1 × 1.9 cm (6 × 4 13/16 × 3/4 in.); Plate: 10.8 × 14 cm (4 1/4 × 5 1/2 in.)
Classification
portrait
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
249870
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, when photography was still a mesmerizing novelty, John Adams Whipple captured this *Untitled (Group Portrait of Men and Women)* as a daguerreotype in 1855. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media department, this intimate 10.9 × 14.1 cm image showcases Whipple's mastery of one of the earliest photographic processes. Daguerreotypes, invented in 1839 by Louis Daguerre, produced unique, highly detailed positive images on silvered copper plates—each one-of-a-kind, like a mirror reflecting a frozen moment. Whipple, a pioneering Boston photographer kn...