The origins of American photography: from daguerreotype to dry-plate, 1839-1885
Keith F. Davis; with contributions by Jane L. Aspinwall; director's foreword by Marc F. Wilson
- Resource Type:
- Book (Print/Paper)
- Publication:
- Kansas City, Mo. : Hall Family Foundation : In association with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art ; New Haven, Conn., [2007]
- Distribution:
- London : Distributed by Yale University Press
More Details
- 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.
- Author/Creator:
- Languages:
- English
- Language Notes:
- Item content: English
- Main Work:
- Alternate Titles:
- At head of title: Hallmark Photographic Collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
- Subjects:
- Genres:
- 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