by jacquelyn horkan, editor
"There is no flattery in
the process
– the features are too correctly given."
Advertisement for H, Whittemore’s traveling daguerreotype
studio in the February 22, 1845, Apalachicola Commercial Advertiser
In 1839
American inventor Samuel B.F. Morse traveled to Paris to demonstrate his electric
telegraph. When he returned to America he brought with him another new invention, the
daguerreotype photographic technique devised by the French painter Louis Daguerre.
By the late 1840s, elegant daguerreotype
galleries had sprouted up in cities and towns across the United States. Residents of
Florida’s tiny hamlets, where custom was slim, were served by traveling daguerrean
artists.
Having rebelled against the
superstitions and sophistry of Old World beliefs, Americans were easily infatuated by the
unmitigated naturalism of photography. One Philadelphia dageurreotypist described the
purpose of his profession: "to transcribe the matchless pencillings of the Divine
Proto-Artist."
For some, though, the allure of the
camera rose from a simpler passion: to secure a permanent likeness of a beloved face, such
as the one pictured in one of the oldest images in the Florida Photographic Collection.
The face belongs to "Mauma"
Mollie, a slave belonging to the Partridges of Jefferson County and nanny to the
family’s children. A few years before her death, a daguerrean camera recorded the
substance of Mauma’s being: Enslaved by the error of man, the evil of her station
could not quench the spirit of wisdom and dignity with which she was endowed by her
Creator.
July/August 1999 -- Florida Business Insight, PO
Box 784, Tallahassee, Fla. 32302
(850)224-7173, insight@aif.com |
