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Summary:

Review: "In this text, Keith F. Davis examines photography's social history and aesthetic development in an era of rapid national growth. He demonstrates how key themes and genres - including the business of daguerreian portraiture, the markets for Civil War images, and the art of Western landscape photography - reflected the concerns and values of nineteenth-century society. Photographers of this era expressed a new national consciousness while, at the same time, helping to shape it. They also explored the visual language of a radically new medium, laying the foundation for all of photography's subsequent history."--Jacket.

Table of Contents:

• Director's foreword
• Preface and acknowledgments
• ch. 1. The pioneering generation : 1839-1843
• Ideas and inventions
• The daguerreotype in America : 1839
• Beyond the laboratory : 1840
• The foundation of a profession : 1841-43
• Case studies : Southworth & Hawes and John Plumbe
• ch. 2. Leaders in the profession : a regional survey
• Boston and vicinity
• Philadelphia and vicinity
• New York City and State
• The South
• The West
• California and the Pacific Coast
• ch. 3. Being a daguerreotypist
• A new profession
• Secrets of the dark chamber
• At work
• A contentious fraternity

• The daguerreian economy
• Exhibitions and competitions
• The language of light : commerce and art
• ch. 4. The face of a nation
• The cultural importance of portraiture
• The portrait tradition
• Illustrious Americans
• Pictures and things : the human artifact
• High and low : the aesthetics of portraiture
• Daguerreian genres and themes
• The occupational daguerreotype
• Ethnicity and race
• Memorial and postmortem images
• The American scene
• Outdoor views
• Gold and the West
• Comic, allegorical, and artistic works
• End of an era.
• ch. 5. The rise of paper photography
• Paper and glass in Europe
• Paper photography in America
• Antebellum America on paper : picture, view, and likeness
• New formats : the stereograph and carte-de-visite
• ch. 6. "A terrible distinctness" : photography of the Civil War Era, 1861-1865
• A mass market for pictures
• Photography and the illustrated press
• Brady, Gardner, and the aesthetics of war
• Photography and the military
• End game : victory, trauma, and the war of memory
• ch. 7. Nature and culture : scenic, topographic, and promotional views
• The art of landscape
• The Eastern landscape : scenic and topographic views
• Yosemite and Carleton E. Watkins
• The push West : troops, tracks, and treaties
• Timothy O'Sullivan and the King and Wheeler surveys
• William Henry Jackson and John K. Hillers : the Hayden and Powell surveys
• ch. 8. A world of photographs
• Napoleon Sarony and the new art of portraiture
• Reality in focus
• Art and invention
• Instantaneous vision
• The dry-plate revolution
• Notes
• Catalogue
• Index.

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Author/Creator:

Davis, Keith F., 1952-

Contributors:

Aspinwall, Jane Lee, 1967-

Wilson, Marc F.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

The origins of American photography: from daguerreotype to dry-plate, 1839-1885 [by Davis, K.F.]

Alternate Titles:

At head of title: Hallmark Photographic Collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Subjects:

Hallmark Photographic Collection — Exhibitions

Photography, Artistic — Exhibitions

Photography — United States — History — Exhibitions

Daguerreotype — Exhibitions

Hallmark Photographic Collection

Photography, Artistic

Photography

Daguerreotype

United States

Genres:

History

Exhibition catalogs

General Notes:

"Published to accompany the exhibition Developing greatness: the origins of American photography, 1839-1885; from daguerreotype to dry-plate at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, June 9-December 30, 2007"--Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Physical Description:

358 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 31 cm

Call Numbers:

TR23 .D387 2007

ISBNs:

9780300122862 (hbk.)
0300122861 (hbk.)

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2007933240

OCLC Numbers:

155680460