50195.
Sixth-plate daguerreotype of a farm scene with main house, barn, several outbuildings. Fence in foreground, snow on the hill.
Anonymous-Cased Images
50197.
Quarter-plate daguerreotype of a girl with her large dog.
50198.
Sixth-plate daguerreotype of a woman in a multiple mat presentation.
50200.
Sixth-plate daguerreotype of a railroad engine and tender with smoke. Name of the engine is “Cape Cod,” in reverse. This is likely the “Cape Cod” built in 1848 by Hinkley & Drury, Boston. Formed in the early 1840s by Holmes Hinkley and Gardner P. Drury, the firm grew into the largest locomotive builder in New England before reorganizing in 1848 as the Boston Locomotive Works.
50201.
Daguerreotype of a gentleman mounted on the cover of a wooden box.
50202.
Full-plate daguerreotype of Niagara Falls.
50203.
I was immediately attracted to this sixth-plate image due its tone, composition, and condition. Then when I looked at it closer, it became more important to me. I’ve been reading lately about the naturalists and transcendentalists of the mid-to-late nineteenth century and this image brought into stark contrast one of their important issues. The bottom half of the image is taken up with a well-worn dirt road. A man is relaxed in his one-horse buggy while a dog sits by the side of the buggy with his back to us. There is a woman standing by the picket fence that surrounds the house. The leaves on the trees appear to be in motion, so possibly a small breeze is in the air. Another man stands a bit to the right on the road. There are buildings in the background down the hill and there is a factory with a large chimney to the right. The contrast between the bucolic country scene and the looming industrial future is captured in this sixth-plate. Emerson, Burroughs and others spoke and wrote frequently about how industry would destroy the land and threatened the human soul, individualism and our connection to nature. All that comes to me, in this image, in my hand.