The latest edition of the official yearbook of The Daguerreian Society has been published. The 280-page book includes a range of studies that reveal the artistry, technology and cultural impacts of 19th-century photography.

Editor Stephen Perloff and Assistant Editor Sarah Weatherwax note, "The editors would like to thank the authors for all their contributions to this year’s Annual and to the Publication Committee for all their help in shepherding this publication along from its inception to its final printing."

The book includes 13 feature stories and a portfolio section with four more stories, each focused on single images.

• "Cardomania Comes to America: Utility, Social Media, and Artistry in the 1850s and 1860s" by Ronald S. Coddington
• "A Shared Journey: The Photographs of Leavitt Hunt and Nathan Baker" by David R. Hanlon
• "'Imperceptible Objects Reproduced in all their Details': the Journal des Jeunes Personnes Announces Daguerre’s 'Opérations'” by Karin J. Bohleke
• "New Jersey’s First Female Daguerreotypist: Charlotte Prosch and Her Family" by Gary D. Saretzky
• "What Causes Ephemeral Colors in Daguerreotypes" by John R. Hurlock
• "Art and Soul: Southworth & Hawes, Reconsidered in the (Heavenly) Light of New Documentary Evidence" by Jeanne Schinto
• “'...on Broadway': New York City emerges as a center of photography" by Kenneth E. Nelson and Jeremy Rowe
• "Traveling Photographers in 19th-Century America" by Carl Mautz
• "The First Private Photographic Trip to the Grand Canyon: E. O. Beaman Betrayed 'In a Lonly Country'” by Joe Bauman
• "Further Excursions: A Beaman Portfolio" by Joe Bauman
• "Colgate Confesses! The Spirited College Portraits of William Hoyt Colgate" by Wm. B. Becker
• "John Plumbe, Jr.: Innovative Daguerreian Printmaker" by Cliff Krainik
• “'Mrs. Genung and Miss Cary, Artists of Established Merit': Two Pioneering California Photographers" by Sean William Nolan
• Portfolio: "South Carolina Gentry" by Ken Habeeb
• Portfolio: "A Man Displaying the French Fourierist Newspaper, La Démocratie pacifique" by Wm. B. Becker
• Portfolio: "Martha T. Mitchell" by Robert W. Caldwell
• Portfolio: "Love Unremitting, Emotions Unrelenting by Philippe Maurice

The Daguerreian Annual encourages submissions of new research and criticism in the field of 19th-century photography. Authors are responsible for providing publication-quality images, together with permissions from the appropriate owners or rights managers to publish those images in print and in future digital distributions. The Editorial staff selects and reviews submitted materials in conjunction with members of the Publications Committee of The Daguerreian Society.

Before submitting an article, authors are advised to send a brief inquiry describing their topic, approach, anticipated length of text, and supporting images. Send your submission to Sarah Weatherwax.

The Daguerreian Society's Publication Committee is actively seeking proposals for this year's Annual. Available in print since 1990, The Daguerreian Annual features over 250 pages of unique research. Every year, we call for submissions to showcase unique and distinctive research about all aspects of 19th-century photography.

If you have an subject in mind, answer our 2024 call!

Submitting is easy: Email a 300-word abstract and 3-6 images to Assistant Editor Sarah Weatherwax. Deadline is May 1. Your submission will be reviewed and considered for inclusion by the full Publication Committee.

Contact us with questions.

Members may access the latest Quarterly from the Quarterly and Newsletter Archive page in the site's members-only section. The "compact" version is suitable for reading on screen or printing at home. The "print-quality" version is much larger and designed for high-quality printing.  

Inside this issue...

• Jeremy Rowe shares a tale of two daguerreotypes that came with surprises
  
• Latest details on the next Daguerreian Society Symposium & Photo Fair Oct. 17-19 in Houston
  
• First look at a new poster promoting the Daguerreian Society and 19th-century photography...and the story behind it
  
• Stephen Perloff previews highlights of upcoming auctions
  
• A postscript to Sean Nolan's 2023 Daguerreian Annual article on Amanda Genung, a pistol-packing pioneering photographer

Just in time for the holiday season, when many people review their annual plans for charitable giving, the Daguerreian Society has created a new page on the website to facilitate donations. 

The new Donations page can be found at www.daguerreiansociety.org/Donate.

In 2024, the Society plans to develop the page further to suggest various levels of giving and to enable additional payment methods to make giving as easy as possible. 

For U.S.-based members, donations are tax deductible to the full extent of the law because the Society is a 501(3)c nonprofit organization. 

Members may access the latest Quarterly from the Quarterly and Newsletter Archive page in the site's members-only section. The "compact" version is suitable for reading on screen or printing at home. The "print-quality" version is much larger and designed for high-quality printing.  

Inside this issue...

• Coverage of the 2023 Symposium in Boston – from private institution visits and expert talks to the photo fair and auction results
• Initial details on next year's Symposium in Houston
• Mystery solved: Sean Nolan cracks the code on a hard-to-identify moniker placed in an anonymous artist's early images
• The National Gallery of Art acquires the Ross J. Kelbaugh Collection of 19th- and early 20th-century American vernacular photographs
• Highlights from Swann's and Hindman's recent auctions

It's official: The location and date of next year's Daguerreian Society Symposium will be Houston from October 17-19. 

The following details were shared at the Board of Directors' latest meeting in late November.

• Our host institution will be the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The Museum’s photography collection comprises more than 35,000 items spanning the full history of the medium. Its strengths include American photography, with extensive holdings of civil-rights photography, Texas photography, and the Photo League; avant-garde photography between the two World Wars; photojournalism; 19th-century European photography; and Japanese photography. (Below, an untitled stereo daguerreotype by Antoine Claudet in the collection.)

• The hotel will be the InterContinental Houston. Located at 6750 Main Street, this modern, AAA Four Diamond Award hotel is close to Houston's Museum District, the renowned Rice University, NRG stadium and the downtown. The room rate is expected to be $165 a night. 
• The distance from the hotel to the MFA, where Thursday's opening reception and Friday's talks will be held, is 1.8 miles. That's an eight-minute cab ride,  12-20 minutes by bus, and a 35-minute walk, partially along Hermann Park. See map. 
• We have some parties who are interested in serving as sponsors. If others are interested in sponsorship opportunities, please contact Diane Filippi at info@daguerreiansociety.org. 
• A special exhibition on contemporary daguerreotypes is planned at the hotel.

Stay tuned for further details!

Board Member Jo Ann Kraus has put together a short video of highlights from last month's Daguerreian Society Symposium & Photo Fair in Boston.

For those who attended, enjoy this four-minute multimedia memento. For those who didn't, see what you missed! We hope to see you at next year's event October 17-19 in Houston!

https://vimeo.com/876449585

Thanks to Carlos Vertanessian, Dave Fondiller, Mike Robinson, Bill Becker, and Jeremy Rowe for contributing images and videos.

Rare, original photos – some 150+ years old – will be featured at Boston event Sept. 30

BOSTON, September 14, 2023 – For three days this month – starting Thursday, Sept. 28 – Boston will be the center of the universe for people who love the world’s first photographs. Collectors, dealers, artists, museum professionals and just plain fans of these early camera images will gather from across the globe for the annual meeting of The Daguerreian Society, the leading organization dedicated to the history, technology, art and preservation of early photographs.

A highlight of the three-day Symposium will be the Society’s Photo Fair, which is open to the public and taking place on Saturday, Sept. 30 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel (in Avenue 34, lobby level). From 10 am to 4 pm, the fair will feature rare and historically important images – most one-of-a-kind and a number related to 19th-century Boston and New England. You will have a chance to not only browse through the past but also buy an authentic piece of history to hold in your hand. 

Thousands of historical photos from as far back as 1840 through the Civil War and up to 1900 will be on display for purchase, as will photographic ephemera and equipment. The images will include daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite (CDVs), cabinet cards, stereographs and other paper photographs. Admission is $10.

  

If that immersion in early photography isn’t enough, you’ll have another opportunity to hunt for photographic treasures later that day: The Society is holding its annual Benefit Auction starting at 8:30 pm on Saturday, and it too is open to the public, via remote bidding. The auction will offer more than 75 lots including over 200 19th-century images. Bidding will be in person at the Boston Park Plaza for Symposium registrants and online through LiveAuctioneers. 

This is the first time in nearly 30 years that the Daguerreian Society, a nonprofit founded in 1988, has held its annual gathering in Boston.

To learn more about the Symposium, photo fair and auction, visit www.daguerreiansociety.org/Symposium.

To download the antique images above, which will be offered at the photo fair or auction, plus other photos from past Society fairs, click here.

Caption info: (Top) Buying and selling at last year's Photo Fair in Chicago. Daguerreotype of a girl and her doll by L. Chase of Boston, ca. 1845-55. Daguerreotype of the Twitchell Estate in Framingham, Mass., circa 1850. Ambrotype of a Civil War naval officer, a fireman 2nd class in Boston in 1859.

About The Daguerreian Society

The Daguerreian Society is the leading organization dedicated to the history, technology, art, and preservation of 19th-century photography. Our international membership brings together photography collectors and dealers, museum professionals, historians, scientists, students, educators, photographers, and artists. A 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in 1988, The Daguerreian Society welcomes all who share an interest in early photography. For more information, please visit www.daguerreiansociety.org.

Media contact: Dave Fondiller, media@daguerreiansociety.org

# # #

This year's Benefit Auction – part of our annual Symposium and open to the public via online bidding – is packed with stellar images and other 19th-century treasures, so mark your calendar: Saturday, Sept. 30.  

More than 75 lots of exceptional photographica – including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes, as well as ephemera and equipment – will be offered, starting at 8:30 pm ET.

Bidding will be in person for Symposium attendees and online for others worldwide through LiveAuctioneers. For information on fees and other conditions of sale, visit the Society's Auction page.

Below, a tinted quarter-plate tintype of an Osage couple that will be in this year's auction. To see the full catalog on LiveAuctioneers, click here.

Members may access the latest Quarterly from the Quarterly and Newsletter Archive page in the site's members-only section. The "compact" version is suitable for reading on screen or printing at home. The "print-quality" version is much larger and designed for high-quality printing.  

Inside this issue...

• The National Portrait Gallery's new exhibition, "Duty, Honor, Country: Antebellum Portraits of West Pointers"
  
• Highlights from the recent Hindman & Fleischer's early photography auctions
• A review of Geoffrey Batchen's new book on William Henry Fox Talbot
  
• A preview of the speakers program at this year's Symposium Sept. 28-30 in Boston 
• Leonard Walle remembers Frederick Birkhill, a cofounder of the Michigan Photographic Historical Society