Figure 1.--Daguerreotype shows a boy and his little sister. They look to be 3-8n years old. The boy wears a collar-buttoning jacket abnd pabnts that do not match. His sister wears a dress with a low neckline. Biys that age might be dressed similarly, but the center hair part suggests this is a girl. The Daguerreotype portrait is undated, but was probably taken in the late-40s or early-50s.

The Daguererrotype was invented in France (1839). It was an immediare censation in Aamerica. By 1840-41 we begin to see the first photographic studios opening in the larger cities. There are relatively few early Dags as the industry was just getting started, but the number of stuidios and portraits taken very quickly increased. The industry quickly soread in America because peoople opening studios simplyb ignored international patent laws. Our confirmed images from the 1840s are very limited, but we are gradually expanding our archive. Photography had been invented, but portraits were expensive and the number of children's portraits are relatively small. Still Daguerreotypes gained great popularity and there were many more portraits taken than had been painted earlier. Our major problem is that while Daguerreotypes appeared in the 1940s we can not reliably differentiate between thise taken in the 1840s and 50s. Almost all photographic portraits taken in the 40s were Dags. By the mid-50s, however, we begin to see Ambros and tin-plates. Only Dags were taken in the 40s so if the portrait is a an Anbro or tin-tyoe, it had to be taken in the 1850s or later. The originals are simple to identify, buy when we just have the images itvis more complicated. taken in the 1840s . (Some but far fewer were taken in the early-60s.) One dead give away is the narrowed waist jacket seen here (figure 1). One helpful but not definiyive indicator is matching jackets and trousers. Thus was not very commion in the 1840s, but in the 1850s we begin to see this convention being afopted. We will try to to assess the decade, but would be pleased if readers have abythiughts as to the correct decade. Of course we still have traditional sources of information, especially paintings and fashion magazines.

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Created: 7:30 AM 7/14/2023
Last updated: 7:30 AM 7/14/2023