Photograph of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre
Photograph of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- A popular portrait method of photography from the 1839 announcement of its invention to about 1860, the Daguerreotype was a unique photograph with no negative—each photograph was exposed on a copper plate coated with silver-nitrate. The process was later replaced with easier and less hazardous methods of negative-positiv-based photography like wet-plate collodion and albumen.
- This half-length Daguerreotype portrait of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, inventor of this photographic process (1839), was taken by American photographer Charles R. Meade when he visited Daguerre at his home in Bry-sur-Marne, France, in 1848. The image is matted in a wooden picture frame for exhibition, unlike most Daguerreotypes, which are preserved in small cases. The photograph was donated to the Smithsonian in 1890.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- photograph
- Object Type
- daguerreotype
- Date made
- 1848
- depicted
- Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mande
- maker
- Meade, Charles R.
- Place Made
- France: Île-de-France, Bry-sur-Marne
- Associated Place
- United States: Missouri, Saint Louis
- Physical Description
- copper (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 27 cm x 22.5 cm x 3 cm; 10 5/8 in x 8 7/8 in x 1 3/16 in
- ID Number
- PG.003115
- catalog number
- 3115
- accession number
- 23473
- Credit Line
- G. Cramer
- subject
- Portraits
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Photographic History
- Photography
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Nominate this object for photography.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.
