Daguerreotype

The invention of photography was only possible due to the camera obscura effect which produces an upside down image of a scene on the back wall of a box when light is reflected through a tiny hole in the box. The camera obscura effect has been known since classical times. The invention of photography required that the image be fixed and reproducible and this was not achieved until the 19th century, after the discovery of the light sensitive properties of certain silver compounds, which resulted from scientific discoveries in the preceding three centuries.  After photography was invented it was improved by the invention of color photography and became cheaper and easier. The order of discovery was inevitable and is an example of how social and cultural history has to follow a particular course determined by the structure of the world around us. Photography is only possible due to the existence in nature, of the camera obscura effect and of the existence of light sensitive compounds and only when they were put together, was photography invented.

From 1848 when the first photographer arrived in Auckland, the photographer’s studio has been a feature of New Zealand towns. This talk about New Zealand photographic studios was first given at the Auckland Central Library in 2014 and looks at why our ancestors had their portraits taken, what they found at the studio, and how much they paid.

The rise of photography in New Zealand is introduced through the study of surviving daguerreotypes. Analysis of known daguerreotypists and their styles along with detailed study of the sitter’s activities enables the categorisation of daguerreotypes made in New Zealand, the first photographs made locally in the colony. As a sample of a wider study, this
article introduces examples from the Auckland War Memorial Museum pictorial collections with the hope that further connections regarding the daguerreotypists and their work can be established.

This article focuses on Mathew Brady’s attempts to use copyright to protect his photographs. For a time, Brady received so much credit in the press that his name became synonymous with all photographs of the Civil War. This prominence in the photography trade and in the public imagination makes Brady’s use of copyright an ideal case for considering the relationship between photography and authorship. The research of this study cites relevant archival sources, including copyright registration practices, copyright notices on printed photographs, and the case of Brady & Gibson v. Bellew (1865), to demonstrate deliberate attempts by Brady to protect his work from infringement, secure economic compensation, and link his name legally with the images he believed would have enduring value. While copyright ultimately failed to protect Brady’s long-term financial interests, part of his attribution strategy established him as a photographic “author” and ensured that his name would remain linked with his photographs.

In Chapter 1 of How to See the World, (2015) Nicholas Mirzoeff asserts that the ‘selfie’, ‘resonates not because it is new, but because it expresses, develops, expands and intensifies the long history of the self-portrait.’ I explore the critical relationship between the self and the self-portrait.

Le premier âge d’or de l’éventail prend fin avec la tourmente révolutionnaire. Les montures en nacre, écaille ou ivoire sculptés disparaissent au profit de brins simples, en bois ou en os, sans décor. Les feuilles en papier gravé semblent cantonner l’éventail à un objet d’actualité rendant compte des bouleversements politiques. De l’assemblée des notables à la mort de Marat, les grands événements rythment son décor. La modestie de ces objets, comme leur dimension politique, laissent deviner la disparation de la clientèle des éventails raffinés, plus tard appelés « artistiques ». Les premières années du XIXe siècle sont ainsi considérées comme peu favorables à l’éventail. Pourtant, la consultation des recueils des dépôts de la Bibliothèque nationale de France met en évidence une prolifique production de feuilles gravées dès le Consulat et durant le Premier Empire. Si les peintres ont cédé leur place aux éditeurs d’estampes, l’engouement pour cet accessoire demeure. Dès les années 1830, la lithographie prend le pas sur la gravure et pose les fondements du renouveau de l’éventail objet d’art. Progressivement les artisans se font inventeurs. Ils rivalisent d’ingéniosité pour proposer brevets et améliorations techniques favorables à l’industrie. Actuellement conservé dans une collection particulière, un éventail constitue un exceptionnel témoignage de cet élan.

»C'est Paris tout entier qui tient dans ces pages, l'immense ville, non pas immobile et froide, mais vivante, saisie sous ses aspects innombrables, avec sa physionomie, son mouvement et son atmosphère«, 1 so formulieren die Verleger den Anspruch von Paris instantané, einem an der Wende zum 20. Jahrhundert erschienenen Lieferungswerk. Doch was motiviert die Werbung zu dem vollmundigen Versprechen, dass auf diesen Seiten ganz Paris seinen Platz finde? Immerhin handelt es sich, wie der Werbetext selbst hervorhebt, um eine riesige Stadt, die sich selbst von der Vielzahl der in dem Band versammelten Fotografien allenfalls in Ausschnitten einfangen lässt. Auch noch als Reklame muss die Aussage für die Zeitgenossen eine gewisse Sinnhaftigkeit beanspruchen, um das Produkt überzeugend anzupreisen. Die Tragfähigkeit des Versprechens wird, so die meinem Aufsatz zugrundeliegende These, durch die Medien sichergestellt, die in Paris instantané zusammenkommen: die Momentfotografie einerseits, die serielle Publikation des Lieferungswerks andererseits. In einer medienwissenschaftlichen Betrachtung möchte dieser Beitrag exemplarisch zeigen, wie Medienspezifik an der Formung eines jeweils spezifischen Bildes der Stadt beteiligt ist. In diesem Zusammenhang werden Medien nicht als unwandelbare, durch ihre Technik ontologisch fixierte Gegebenheiten vorausgesetzt, sondern als dynamischer Möglichkeitshorizont medialer Formbildung, dessen Grenze sich in kontinuierlichem Wandel befindet. Jede Aktualisierung einer medialen Form gewinnt ihren Sinn vor dem Hintergrund des Mediums, umgekehrt arbeitet jeder Gebrauch eines Mediums zugleich an dessen fortlaufender Konstituierung mit, insofern er sich auf die gegebenen Voraussetzungen bezieht, diese affirmiert oder modifiziert. In diesem Sinn gilt es nicht, durch die mediale Form das Wesen des Mediums, was auch immer das sein könnte, zu ergründen, sondern der Begegnung der Fotografie mit einem periodischen Printmedium in einer historisch spezifischen kulturellen

In the wake of the recent surge of interest in the relation between sculpture and photography, the article revisits the photography’s capacity to convey the haptic qualities of sculpted matter. Starting from the logic of supplementarity, whereby a photograph reveals something that we do not notice while meeting the sculpture itself, the article focuses on the photographic detail and its inherent tactility as the materiality’s own surprising touch. At the same time, a close attention is paid to the role of scale in the photography of sculpture and to the connection between the impact of the detail and the play of scale, which makes us aware of the uncertain borderline between image and mental image. Different from measurable size, scale enters our perception of the photographed sculpture as something irreducible to the detail understood as the matter’s signature. While being a more abstract agent than the more directly tactile detail, scale has its own mode of addressing the viewer by making her suddenly aware of her own situation. The more personal nature of this address makes it possible to connect the scale, rather than the detail in its more usual iconographic sense, to Roland Barthes’ notion of the punctum as, first and foremost, a mental event. However, as the article makes clear, this event, whereby a detail expands mentally and independently on any measurable size, cannot occur without the underlying relief-like or tactile qualities of the photographs themselves. To support this interpretation of the productive tension between the detail and the scale, the article discusses a series of examples (starting with the early daguerreotypes) and appeals to a broad range of studies, from Herder through Aloïs Riegl and Ronald Barthes to the most recent debates.

Mezi nejznámější fotografie v českých sbírkách patří bezesporu tzv. Kynžvartská daguerrotypie – vyobrazení zátiší, které obdržel kníže Klemens von Metternich-Winneburg darem od Louise J. M. Daguerra v létě 1839. Méně známé jsou však další daguerrotypické inkunábule a prameny k počátkům dějin fotografie u nás, které se dochovaly ve stejné sbírce na kynžvartském zámku. Cílem příspěvku je jednak přiblížit tento pozoruhodný konvolut daguerrotypií, jeho skladbu, historii a místo, jež zaujímá v kontextu zámecké sbírky, jednak upozornit na úlohu Klemense Metternicha jakožto podporovatele prvních daguerrotypistů a jednoho z vůbec prvních sběratelů fotografie. / Undoubtedly, one of the best-known photographs in Czech collections is the so-called “Kynžvart Daguerreotype” –
a presentation piece depicting a still life, which was given by Louis J. M. Daguerre to Clemens von Metternich-Winneburg in summer 1839. However, there are other daguerreotype incunabula and written documents preserved in the very same collection at the Kynžvart castle, which are of similar importance and relevance to the local history of photography. Unlike the first one, they remain rather unknown. The article aims to elucidate this remarkable series of very early daguerreotypes, their history and their place in the context of an aristocratic collection. By doing so, the essay draws attention to Clemens Metternich as a patron of pioneer daguerreotypists and as one of the first collectors of photographs.

An account of early photographic authorship, which draws on the legal prosecutions conducted by the British patentee for the Daguerreotype patent, Richard Beard. The essay engages debates on intellectual property rights  and argues that, while most discussions of art and visual culture  have focussed on French examples, British capitalism created a specific framework for authorship, unlike those found under systems based on Roman law.
The essay is a materialist response to performativity theory and retort to New Historicist accounts of Intellectual Property. It is a first draft for a book in process.
Published in  OXFORD ART JOURNAL, 36.3 2013, 369–394

Si l'on jette un regard d'ensemble sur le théâtre du XIX e siècle, on est frappé par son évolution vigoureuse et de plus en plus rapide, qui a mené des dernières survivances d'une forme dramatique hautement codifiée, la tragédie, au drame romantique, au théâtre réaliste et aux provocations d'Ubu roi 1 , dans un effort perpétuel de libération des contraintes, quelles qu'elles soient. Cette évolution est difficile à expliquer si l'on s'en tient juste à la logique interne des genres littéraires ou aux raisons esthétiques qui auraient pu en déterminer les accents. Si, au contraire, on élargit l'investigation vers les transformations profondes de la visualité, vers les changements des modes de perception visuelle déterminés par l'évolution générale des arts et surtout par l'émergence de nouvelles technologies, le panorama devient plus complexe, mais aussi plus lisible, et l'on pourra fournir une meilleure interprétation des mutations dans le champ du théâtre. On ne manquera pas d'observer, au cours de cette investigation, que les nouvelles visualités changent le public, lequel public change les auteurs, lesquels à leur tour changent les praticiens, dans un va-et-vient qui est le signe le plus indélébile de la vitalité du théâtre du XIX e siècle. Théophile Gautier ne déclarait-il pas, en 1839, que « le temps des spectacles purement oculaires était venu 2 » ?

The daguerreotype camera in the Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History of Florence was purchased in autumn 1839, shortly after the Italian physicist Tito Puliti had made the first Italian experiments with the new process. Built by Alphonse Giroux for L. J. M. Daguerre, the camera has been listes in the museum inventory since 1840 and it was modified and adapted a number of times according to the needs of the institution. By putting the few reports that still survive concerning this device together with the archives now kept in the Museo Galileo it is possible to reconstruct a sort of biography of the camera. The article investigates also the story of a second daguerreotype camera, the one built in March 1847 by Giuseppe Ponziani. Tracing these objects through the museum's history helps us to examine some aspects of photography that have not yet been sufficiently investigated, such as the influence on its development exercised  by those scientific institutions that were the first to appreciate the importance of the new invention and that tried to exploit its potential in the scientific and social fields.

Uno de los proyectos  que afronta actualmente el grupo Fotodoc de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Documentación de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, es el estudio del fondo fotográfico del Instituto Valencia de Don Juan (Madrid), en el que se encuentran los daguerrotipos que se presentan en esta publicación. Para ello se han establecido y desarrollado varias fases de trabajo de acuerdo a un cronograma, siendo prioritaria la inmediata difusión al tratarse de piezas excepcionales, así como el reconocimiento global para determinar sus características: autoría, formato, contenidos, estado de conservación, etc. Se ha priorizado, por consiguiente, la valoración general de los artefactos, varios de ellos realizados por uno de los más prestigiosos fotógrafos del mundo, el neoyorquino Mathew B. Brady, cuya producción más conocida se centra en la Guerra de Secesión de Estados Unidos. La estructura del libro responde a la metodología aplicada, con dos partes diferenciadas: la primera dedicada a la morfología, los autores de las fotografías y los personajes, y la segunda a la documentación recopilada y a la reproducción de los daguerrotipos, destacando detalles relevantes de las imágenes.

The introduction of electrotyping (also galvanoplasty), daguerreotypes and photography mark the point of no return of a historic revolution resulting from the acceleration of the image reproduction process. However, this radical change should not be considered a breakaway from the past, neither an antithesis to the advance of the original or “autograph” engraving. Some famous burinist of the “gran genere” approach these discoveries, overturning the academic rules from within, and directing their choices towards procedures that are more suited to the rapid changes in trends, habits and lifestyle; and change of taste dictated by a rising middle class. It is with the experimenting within these technologies that common experiences arise between Italian engravers in the beginning of 19th century and Italian etchers in the second half, with periods of French residence ad a common denominator.

La galvanoplastica, la dagherrotipia e la fotografia segnano il punto di non ritorno di una rivoluzione epocale basata sul processo di accelerazione nella riproduzione dell’immagine. Il radicale cambiamento non è, tuttavia, da considerarsi in termini di drastica cesura con il passato, né in antitesi con l’avanzata dell’incisione originale o “autografa”: alcuni celebri bulinisti del “gran genere” si avvicinano a queste scoperte stravolgendo dal di dentro le regole accademiche orientando le loro scelte verso procedimenti più congeniali al rapido evolversi dei costumi, delle mode, degli stili di vita e del mutamento del gusto che l’ascesa di una nuova borghesia stava imponendo. È proprio nella diretta sperimentazione di questi ritrovati che emergono i ‘fili conduttori’ tra le differenti esperienze dei bulinisti italiani del primo Ottocento e quelle degli acquafortisti della seconda metà del secolo accomunati da periodi di permanenza in territorio francese.

The few remaining daguerreotypes by Daguerre himself that have survived for the last 175 years can be divided into three groups: still-lifes, cityscapes, and portraits. His second series of views of Paris attracted particular interest in the photographic milieu and beyond it. In a general sense, plates like these offer a rare chance to look back into the 'capital of the 19th century', as Walter Benjamin puts it, but there is a lot more to them than that.

In book five of the Mémoires d’outre- tombe Chateaubriand recalls Marie-Antoinette, superimposing the memory of her smile with that of her skull exhumed in 1815. Starting with this hallucinatory overlay (smiling woman / grimacing skull) this article discusses the kinship between Chateaubriand’s writing of memory and the various optical techniques popular at the time, including daguerreotypes, dioramas, waxworks, phantasmagorias, ghost photography, stereoscopy, double exposures, etc. Focusing mainly on the memoir’s female portraits, I show that,
while they are obviously indebted to the venerable tradition of the vanitas, they also owe something to modern illusionistic spectacles, and I explore the affinity between the techniques of image mobility and memory phenomena, which were naturally troped in terms of the new optical inventions. (In French)

Članak rekapitulira postojeće i donosi brojne nove podatke o dagerotipijskoj djelatnosti u Zagrebu sredinom devetnaestoga stoljeća. Slijedom napisa objavljenih u onodobnim novinama rekonstruira se ozračje dolaska novoga izuma u Zagreb 1839. godine kao i razina spoznaje o ovome ranome fotografskom procesu u hrvatskome društvu. Posebna je pozornost poklonjena Demetru Novakoviću, prvomu hrvatskom dagerotipistu koji je, po svemu sudeći, poduku za izradu dagerotipija dobio izravno u Parizu u vrijeme javne demonstracije procesa. Rad ostalih praktičara – uglavnom putujućih dagerotipista – koji su djelovali u glavnome hrvatskom gradu ocrtan je na temelju podataka dostupnih kroz novinske oglase i nešto literature. Među njima valja istaknuti Johanna Boscha, predstavnika takozvane Bečke škole dagerotipije te Ferdinanda Rahmanna i Josepha Kallaina, čije rivalstvo i nadmetanje u kvaliteti izrade dagerotipija predstavlja prvi zabilježeni primjer fotografske konkurencije na hrvatskome prostoru.

La mort en surimpression dans Mémoires d'outre-tombe Dominique Jullien In book fi ve of the Mémoires d'outre-tombe Chateaubriand recalls Marie-Antoinette, superimposing the memory of her smile with that of her skull exhumed in 1815. Starting with this hallucinatory overlay (smiling woman / grimacing skull) this article discusses the kinship between Chateaubriand's writing of memory and the various optical techniques popular at the time, including daguerreotypes, dioramas, waxworks, fantasmagorias, ghost photography, stereoscopy, double exposures, etc. Focusing mainly on the memoir's female portraits, I show that, while they are obviously indebted to the venerable tradition of the vanitas, they also owe something to modern illusionistic spectacles, and I explore the affi nity between the techniques of image mobility and memory phenomena, which were naturally troped in terms of the new optical inventions. (In French) Dans un épisode célèbre du livre cinq des Mémoires d'outre-tombe, Chateaubriand évoque sa rencontre avec Marie-Antoinette et le souvenir de son sourire, avec, en surimpression macabre, l'image de son crâne reconnu lors des exhumations de 1815: Elle me fi t, en me jetant un regard avec un sourire, ce salut gracieux qu'elle m'avait déjà fait le jour de ma présentation. Je n'oublierai jamais ce regard qui devait s'éteindre sitôt. Marie-Antoinette, en souriant, dessina si bien la forme de sa bouche, que le souvenir de ce sourire (chose eff royable!) me fi t reconnaître la mâchoire de la fi lle des rois, quand on découvrit la tête de l'infortunée dans les exhumations de 1815. (1: 287-88) Cette scène hallucinatoire servira de point de départ à une analyse portant sur la manière dont l'écriture du souvenir s'apparente chez Chateaubriand aux diverses techniques optiques en vogue à l'époque: diorama, panorama, daguerréotype, lanterne magique, fi gures de cire et autres fantasmagories. 1 La dette de l'imaginaire historique du siècle envers les techniques optiques a fait l'objet de travaux bien connus (Bann 54-57, et surtout Samuels 5-7 et 18-62). Par ailleurs, de nombreux critiques se sont penchés sur le modèle photographique de

RESUMO Neste ensaio, a pesquisadora Marina Feldhues prossegue na discussão sobre os usos iniciais da Fotografia a serviço da dominação colonial, no século XIX; desta vez, analisa o desenvolvimento do racismo científico nas ciências naturais moderno-ocidentais. Do século XVI ao século XVIII, da Fisiognomia à Antropologia Comparada, do Desenho ao Daguerreótipo, a pesquisadora compõe duas cenas e, numa análise crítica, questiona as relações entre o racismo científico, o desenho e o daguerreótipo.

Este artículo explora la nostalgia posrevolucionaria por un México decimonónico reinventado en los 1930, en particular desde la perspectiva de Enrique Fernández Ledesma. Textos, fotografías e ilustraciones sirven a este bibliófilo para reconstruir un mundo de costumbres y modismos que se desvanece frente al embate de la modernización.

The National Technical Museum’s collection in Prague contains a most remarkable daguerreotype, whose importance extends beyond the borders of Central Europe. It is a daguerreotype photomicrograph of a section of a plant, which has been dated to 1840 and attributed to Florus I. Stašek (1782-1862), a physics teacher and headmaster at the Piarist Gymnasium in Litomyšl in eastern Bohemia. The dating and attribution which we have today were passed down orally from the 1930s, when the daguerreotype was transferred to Prague from the Regional Museum in Litomyšl. Only relatively recently has doubt been cast upon Stašek’s sole authorship of the daguerreotype, and a possible link suggested to his colleague, the Viennese teacher of physics and mathematics Andreas von Ettingshausen (1796-1878).This hypothesis, along with recently uncovered archival material, forms the basis of the following study.

The pioneering work of historians such as Robert Taft, William Welling and Bill Frassanito has contributed to more than just the history of photography as a medium. It has helped establish the photograph as a valuable primary source on par with textual records like news articles and personal correspondence. Historical photographs can provide valuable information about the topography of a battlefield, the architecture of a city, and the day-to-day life of a bygone age. In 19th century America, many stereographs and cartes-de-visite produced for a mass audience carried clues, not only in the image itself, but also imprinted upon the image mount. The copyright imprint, comprised of the words “Entered According to Act of Congress” followed by the year, registrant name and location information, are a window into a wealth of historical evidence.

This paper considers the role of macroalgae (seaweed) in the mid-19c Daguerreotype process and subsequent technical developments in chemical photography. Since antiquity, seaweed has been used as an important supplement to human well-being. Ancient medical literature recommends burnt seaweeds for the treatment of endemic goiter. Centuries later, in the mid-19th century, iodine extracted from kelp was elevated as a medical panacea. Seaweed, and the iodine it produces also has a history in the technical production of images; during the same period, the modern photographic image was born from these briny plants. In 1839 Louis Daguerre used iodine to photosensitize the earliest photographic plates, bringing into focus “the pencil of nature” (a phrase that early adopters of the Daguerreotype process used to describe their invention’s descriptive potency). This notable aspect of human technological development draws the molecular activity of the hydrosphere and complex organic organisms like macroalgae into visual culture. Its traces reveal the commonality of oceanic mediations in natural, technical, and human processes.

Serge Kakou a écrit une histoire de la photographie en Nouvelle-Calédonie au XIXe siècle fondée sur plus de vingt-cinq années recherches fouillées. Du père André Chapuy—l'un des premiers missionnaires et Européens dans l'archipel arrivé en 1848 avec une chambre daguerrienne—à divers fonctionnaires, colons, militaires, religieux, forçats et photographes professionnels, se tisse le récit de la colonisation de la Nouvelle-Calédonie: villages néo-calédoniens, naissance et évolution de la ville européenne, exploitations agricoles et minières, bagnes. Une discussion sur les gravures exécutées d'après photographies dans la presse illustrée et un dictionnaire biographique des photographes complètent l'analyse du sujet. Histoire saisissante et admirablement reconstituée, l'ouvrage de Serge Kakou constitue un modèle du genre, pour son contenu comme pour sa méthode.

New details about about two daguerreotypists, who played important role in the history of photography in Lithuania, are presented. One of them, Francois Marcillac (1817-1876) made the first daguerreotype in Lithuania in 1839,  while another, Charles Neupert (1803-1857) worked in Lithuania in 1851-1855, and even four daguerreotypes made in Lithuania by him are preserved.

Este artículo propone una reflexión sobre la historiografía de la fotografía decimonónica como empezó a realizarse en el siglo XX.  Aborda dos libros de Enrique Fernández Ledesma para analizar las formas de representación textual y visual de la experiencia burguesa en el siglo XIX, en particular la romántica. Resalta la importancia que tuvieron las construcciones de comportamientos de clase social y de género pensando en la complementariedad de la dupla tradición/modernidad como una tensión casi inescapable en la construcción de una modernidad nacional. Por ello se vinculan con los sueños utópicos y las remembranzas del pasado tanto virreinal como decimonónico. Es decir una nostalgia del pasado como actitud histórica, como una expresión más de lo paradójicas que fueron las energías que movieron la cultura después del renacimiento cultural de la posrevolución y de las formas de irse dando la modernidad en el país.

This article considers the daguerreotype and electricity as the key driving forces in the early histories of photography and photomechanical reproduction. Drawing on three examples – daguerreotype electrotypes, galvanically etched daguerreotypes and the etching process developed by Hippolyte Fizeau – the article aims to demonstrate how closely they were connected and how much interest they raised among scientists and photographers in the early 1840s, particularly in France, Britain and the German-speaking countries. The article shows in what ways the three processes were employed and who developed and used them, which institutions and learned societies were involved in their progress and which theoretical concepts and discussions they gave rise to. Although all three were only short-lived technologies and were largely forgotten by the end of the 1850s, they are more than mere curiosities, as they contribute significantly to our better understanding of the earliest histories of photography and photomechanical reproduction.

This article examines the role of photography in the Year of Revolution and the place this topic holds in historiography. Unlike many historical disciplines which perceive 1848 as a turning point in the nineteenth century, the history of photography gives the impression that photographic production was not really affected by the upheavals which otherwise had a great impact on the whole of continental Europe. Collections and archives, however, contain large amounts of visual and written material that indicate the very opposite – that the involvement of photography in the events of 1848 was not rare. Using five examples from Central Europe, three portraits and two cityscapes, this article provides an insight into the cultural and historical backgrounds of photographic production in that year. The article demonstrates the ways in which photographs were involved in the social, political, and cultural events of the time, and how they helped shape ideas about them.

The daguerreotype by an unknown artist depicting the two elder daughters of painter Miklós Barabás, Henriette and Ilona, was probably made in the first half of the 1850s. The two girls sit in half profile, holding each other’s hands. They are wearing dresses made of similar materials and their hair is plaited in almost identical braids. Pale touch-ups have been made to the image using paint: the pink blush of their cheeks gives a sense of vivacity and health, and the pale blue tones of their dresses reinforces the similarity of their attire. The gesture of holding hands and the almost identical dresses and hairstyles (which gives one the impression that they are twins), suggests that they share a close relationship, but at the same time it also throws into question their separate personalities and, thus, their very identities as individuals. Looking at the European and American daguerreotype portraits of two or three siblings that were made in this period, one notices that these kinds of compositional features, which blur the differences between the individual subjects and create the impression that the siblings may even be twins, are far more common in portraits of sisters than in depictions of brothers. This tendency could well be interpreted as a symptom, as it were, of the substantial differences in the ways in which boys and girls were reared and educated and the different expectations which were placed on them and prospects which awaited them as adults. While in the case of boys, the cultivation of the mind was the primary goal, in the case of girls the priority was nurturing a sense of emotional attachment and devotion, which would be vital in the creation of a happy home and the proper rearing of children. One also notices that this tendency to depict sisters in similar or identical dress and pose was much more common in the daguerreotypes of the time than it was in the paintings, which presumably is due in part to the nature of the medium of the photograph itself. In my presentation, I examine how the assessment of the daguerreotype at the time, which was a sensation primarily as a medium that offered an “accurate” depiction of a sitting model, influenced this particular tendency in the daguerreotypes made in the middle of the century.