The Daguerreotype: Capturing Forever (part 2 of 3)

A Daguerreotype image is created when a photosensitive layer of silver is applied in a mirror like coating to one side of a copper plate. After taking a picture the plate is developed by exposure to mercury vapor and then permanently fixed by placing it into a bath of hyposulphite of soda. A piece of glass is placed over the image and sealed at the edge to protect the delicate image against abrasion and oxidation. The sealed Daguerreotype was then placed in case (in America) or hung on the wall (in Britain).

Early Daguerreotypes tended to be dark with exposure times that required the sitter to remain still for several minutes. Rapid advances in chemistry and the process in the early 1840s cut exposure times to 10-15 seconds and improved image quality dramatically. As early as 1842 hand coloring of the Daguerreotype was offered, at an additional cost. By the end of the decade the hand-painted portrait miniature, which had been the most “affordable” method of capturing the human likeness was a thing of the past.

Vigilant Fire Company, Baltimore

For the first time in history ordinary people could have a faithful picture of themselves (for between 25 cents to $ 2.50 depending on the size of the image). By 1853 an estimated three million Daguerreotypes were being developed in America per year with perhaps thirty million produced before its replacement by more convenient and less costly photograph processes in the late 1850s.





Daguerreotype of a couple
holding a Daguerreotype