Symposium Presentation 2023: Professor Charles Avery: The Man at the Nexus of Central New York's Daguerreian Craze

Photo historian, dealer, and collector Erin Waters delivers a highly informative presentation on Charles Avery, an intriguing figure in the very early history of daguerreotype making in America. A graduate and later professor of chemistry at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. (Waters’s alma mater), Avery traveled to New York City in December 1839 to attend one of François Gouraud’s lectures on the daguerreotype. Upon his return to Clinton, he immediately began experimenting with the process, and Hamilton College soon became a nexus for the teaching of daguerreotypy in central New York. Presented at the 2023 The Daguerreian Society Symposium on September 29, 2023.