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By George Whiteley
It is with great sadness that my wife Sue and I learned of the passing of Sally Anyan today. We met Sally through the Daguerreian Society and she was instantly likable. Her equal passions for early photography – especially daguerreian jewelry – and classical music were infectious to all who knew her. She always wore a smile and was ready to help with whatever needed to be done for the Society, especially with organizing our annual Symposiums. She was good at it too, and between her and Diane Filippi, they got things rolling!
Sally Anyan shows a daguerreotype at the 2014 Daguerreian Society Symposium in Austin, Texas.
Sally and I became good friends when she was vice president (2009-2013) and later president (2013) and chair (2014) of the Daguerreian Society. She was instrumental in getting me involved with the Symposium when it was held in Atlanta in 2010, and in my becoming a board member at that time. She worked tirelessly to get things accomplished and was always pleasant when doing so. She was a joy to work with while on the board.
I had several occasions to visit with Sally and Richard Titus at their home in Maryland. On one of those visits, I discovered that we both were living only a couple of miles apart in Erlangen, Germany at the same time during the late 1960s. She was a teacher, and I was in the military at that time. Regrettably, we never met there but subsequently shared our adventures.
Along with being a fellow Daguerreian Society officer and friend, Sally was an astute collector who continually purchased select images and pieces of photographic jewelry from me and Sue. We were always thrilled to have her be the next steward of things we loved, and I don't know who was more excited about those transactions between us. Sally had a good eye!
It was truly unfortunate that Sally suffered a series of strokes that were life-changing. When we last visited her, she could speak very little, but we could tell by the twinkles in her eyes that she knew who we were and seemed at peace. Sally will be missed by all who took the time to know her. She was a credit to the Daguerreian Society with her enthusiasm, energy and professionalism.
For more on Sally's life, see her obituary. _____________________ George Whiteley is a current and founding member of The Daguerreian Society.
Propose a talk on 19th-century photography for The Daguerreian Society Symposium, September 25-27 at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut.
Based on member feedback, there’s interest in a wide range of subjects, including:
Please keep in mind:
To submit your idea for a Symposium presentation, email a summary, estimated running time, and 3 to 5 sample images to diane_dagsoc@comcast.net.
See you in Hartford!
The Daguerreian Society is introducing a new column for its Quarterly, titled “Lab Notes.” In the tradition of the original photographic journals of the 1850s, the publication's editorial board is soliciting images and questions from daguerreian artists related to materials and methods.
For the lead-off column, Society President Dr. Mike Robinson has submitted this half-plate daguerreotype, and will describe the technical details of its creation. He made it to explore galvanizing methods. Society members will be able to read all about it in the next Quarterly.
The remainder of the column will print questions from the field about materials and methods. Daguerreian Society members will be encouraged to submit a question or reply. Answers submitted will be reviewed and published in the next Quarterly.
To encourage participation, the names of people who submit images, questions, and answers will be dropped into a hat for one to be selected. The winning name will win this daguerreotype. You must be a member of the Daguerreian Society to participate. Send your images, questions, and answers via the Contact us page on the website.
In preparation for our Symposium & Photo Fair this fall in Hartford, Connecticut, the Daguerreian Society is now accepting high-quality consignments and donations for its annual Benefit Auction, to be held September 27 during the conference.
An exceptional daguerreotype that sold at a recent Daguerreian Society auction for $32,500 (hammer price).
We invite you to take part in this exciting event, whether you’re a member of the Society or someone who wants to participate through consigning or donating one or more great images.
We especially seek consignments that will realize a hammer price of $2,000 or more.
Your property will be featured in a small, curated auction and marketed to private collectors and institutions worldwide.
The auction will be held LIVE during the Symposium and broadcast for internet bidding globally. The Society offers an extremely competitive consignment fee.
Consignment deadline: July 15.
Questions? Contact auction@daguerreiansociety.org.
Click here to propose consignments.
For U.S. donors: The Daguerreian Society is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Donations are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.
The Daguerreian Society’s 2024 Symposium in Houston was filled with memorable moments. One of the highlights:
Society member Jeff Rosenheim, Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, gave attendees an exclusive advance look at the fabulous collection assembled by Society member William L. Schaeffer. The collection, recently acquired by the Met, will be on exhibit in the show “The New Art: American Photography, 1839–1910” April 11–July 20, 2025.
Society member Jeff Rosenheim, Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs at the Met, delivers the keynote talk on “The New Art: American Photography, 1839–1910” at the 2024 Symposium in Houston.
For a limited time, members of The Daguerreian Society can view Jeff Rosenheim’s entire talk, and all of the presentations from the 2024 Symposium, free of charge. Click here to access the Video Archive: https://www.DaguerreianSociety.org/Video-Archive
And mark your calendar now for the 2025 Daguerreian Society Symposium & Photo Fair in Hartford, Connecticut, September 25–27. Click here to learn more! https://www.DaguerreianSociety.org/Symposium
Click here to join the Society: https://www.DaguerreianSociety.org/Join
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...
Photography curator and longtime member Malcolm Daniel discusses 19th-century photo highlights at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. (Photo by Terry Alphonse)
The Daguerreian Society would like to gratefully acknowledge the curators and staff who helped make our private visits to institutional collections such a resounding success at this year's Symposium in Houston.
At the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, our host institution: Malcolm Daniel, Christine Gervais, Raquel Carrera, Toshiaki Koseki, and Melanie Fahey.
At the Nau Civil War Collection: Sally Anne Schmidt and her team.
At the San Jacinto Museum and Battleground Alexis Stephens, Cecilia Abad, and Lisa Struthers, who joined forces with local member and sponsor Curt Robbins to create a special exhibit of early Texas-related photographs.
At the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, which contributed to the San Jacinto special exhibit: James Anderson and Lisa Meisch.
Thank you for sharing your treasure-packed collections with us! You made our annual gathering even more enriching and memorable.
MFAH Curator of Decorative Arts Christine Gervais leads a tour focused on the museum’s 19th-century American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts. (Photo by Terry Alphonse)
Curator Sally Anne Schmidt, second from left, discusses the Nau Civil War Collection with past President Mike Medhurst as other tour-goers take in the treasures. (Photo by David S. Fondiller)
Alexis Stephens, Cecilia Abad, and Lisa Struthers at the San Jacinto Museum and Battleground.
James Anderson and Lisa Meisch from the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, which contributed to the San Jacinto special exhibit.
Photo experts meet in Houston as US election approaches
A photograph of Dolley Madison – perhaps the earliest camera portrait of a U.S. First Lady – was auctioned this past summer for $456,000. It is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian. The basement find of a lifetime – and, of special interest to a group about to meet in Houston.
The Dolley Madison portrait is a daguerreotype, made on a mirror-like silver surface backed with copper. Daguerreotypes are products of the earliest practical method of photography, made during a roughly 20-year period before the Civil War. No two are exactly alike. This one, dating from about 1846, was discovered while cleaning out the basement of a house whose owner had passed away.
This circa 1846 daguerreotype of First Lady Dolley Madison sold recently for $456,000 and is now owned by the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian.
It’s just one example of the surprising connections between early photography and political life in this election season…highlighted by the meeting in Houston (October 17-19) of the leading international group dedicated to photography before 1900, The Daguerreian Society.
The group is holding its annual conference at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The Society brings together photo collectors, historians, preservation experts, museum curators and even some modern practitioners of the original process.
The MFAH has a remarkable collection of antique photographs, including one of the most important political daguerreotypes of all, a striking, large, full-length portrait of Sam Houston – who twice served as President of the Republic of Texas, represented the Lone Star state as one of its first two US Senators, and who also was elected governor.
This large and impressive portrait of the man who served as Texas Governor, U.S. Senator, and President of the Republic of Texas is one of the highlights of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. It is a daguerreotype, made by the earliest practical method of photography.
The election of 1860 saw the first widespread use of photographs on political badges, including tintypes of candidate Abraham Lincoln (Source: Library of Congress)
Frontier daguerreotype: Buying a vote? Possibly one of the earliest election-themed photographs made, these two frontier types seem to be trading a ballot for a drink at a saloon. Dating from before the Civil War, it’s owned by a member of The Daguerreian Society. (Source: Private collection via The Daguerreian Society)
"Paying the Election Bet": This photograph from 1872 shows a crowd of people in a New Hampshire town watching the loser of an election bet pull the winner around the town square. Just to rub it in, the winner is dressed in an Uncle Sam costume. (Source: Jeffrey Kraus Antique Photographics)
Although women could not vote at the time, there are photographs that show their influence…like the picture of the anti-saloon crusader Carrie Nation in a jail cell in Kansas. As Daguerreian Society member Bill Becker points out, “It’s hard to know who was more excited by that photo in its day – Carrie Nation’s fans….or her opponents.”
Carrie Nation in jail: The anti-saloon crusader Carrie Nation is shown in a Wichita, Kansas jail, reading a Bible, in 1901. While women could not vote in the US at the time, many were involved in the temperance movement that led to the prohibition of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. (Source: Wm. B. Becker Collection / PhotographyMuseum.com)
The Daguerreian Society is presenting a Photo Fair, open to the public, where visitors can view and purchase original historic photographs, many of them 150 years old.
The Photo Fair is open from 10 a.m. to 4 pm at the InterContinental Houston hotel on Main Street on Saturday, October 19, and admission is $10. “It’s a chance to buy an actual piece of history,” says Becker, “you probably won’t find Dolley Madison there, but you never know what will turn up. And you don’t have to be rich to get started. I’ve seen actual daguerreotypes from the 1850s for as little as $20."
Oct. 19 event will feature rare, original photos – some 150+ years old
HOUSTON, October 2, 2024 – For three days this month – starting Thursday, Oct. 17 – Houston 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.
You will be able to buy an authentic piece of history at the Daguerreian Society Photo Fair.
A highlight of the three-day gathering will be the Society’s Photo Fair, which is open to the public and taking place on Saturday, Oct. 19 at the InterContinental Houston hotel (Live Oak Ballroom, 7th floor). 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 Texas and the Southwest. 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...for as little as $10. Thousands of historical photos from as far back as 1840 through the Civil War and up to 1900 will be on display for purchase. The images will include antique daguerreotypes (the earliest practical form of photography) as well as modern daguerreotypes made by contemporary artists; tintypes on metal; ambrotypes on glass; and pioneering paper photographs. You can even glimpse the past in lifelike 3D, thanks to early stereoscopic views. Admission is $10.
Clockwise from top left: Original paper photograph (carte de visite) of General Sam Houston with a walking stick, circa 1860. Ambrotype of an African American man with a wandering eye, ca. mid-1850s. Hand-colored tintype of General George A. Custer, ca. 1875. Daguerreotype of two boys in matching outfits with a book, ca. 1845.
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 pm CDT on Saturday, and it too is open to the public, via remote bidding. The auction will offer nearly 80 lots including over 200 fine 19th-century images. Bidding will be in person at the InterContinental Houston for Symposium registrants and online through Freeman’s | Hindman’s auction platform. This will be the first time that The Daguerreian Society, an international nonprofit founded in 1988, has held its annual Symposium in Houston. To learn more about the Photo Fair, Benefit Auction, and Symposium, visit DaguerreianSociety.org/Symposium. To download photos that will be offered at the photo fair and auction, as well as photos from past Society fairs, click here. 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 DaguerreianSociety.org. Media contact: Dave Fondiller, Media@DaguerreianSociety.org.
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The Society regularly organizes educational programs exploring various aspects of the history, technology, art, and preservation of 19th-century photography.
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