Two items for today. . . On this day (June 11) the following advertisement appeared in the "Daily Evening Transcript" (Boston): - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 203 WASHINGTON, CORNER OF BROMFIELD ST. Is the number where ORMSBEE & SILSBEE have opened the most extensive DAGUERREOTYPE ROOMS in the World. The subscribers have TWO Sky-light Rooms, one on the FIRST flight. They are to be assisted by two of the bery best opera- tors, consequently leaving our patrons positive of find- ing at all times two or more to wait on them, and with- out delay, which so often occurs with one light and one operator. They also have a Private Reception Room, for Fami- lies, while waiting, one for the other. The public are respectfully invited to call. Je11 *tc ORMSBEE & SILSBEE. * * * * * * * * * * * The following poem appeared in the June, 1892 issue of "The Photo- American" (Vol. III, No. 8. Page 233): The Daguerreotype. Eve Wilder McGlasson, in Harper's Weekly. You hev to holt it sidewise Fer to make the lightness show 'Cuz it's sort uh dim an' shifty Till you git it right--'bout so! An' then the eyes winks at yeh, An' the mouth is cherry ripe. Law! It beats your new-style picters, This old digerrytype. Thar's a blush acrost the dimples Thet burrows in the cheeks; F'om out them clups o'ringlets Two little small ears peeks. Thet brooch thet jines her neckgear Is what they used to wear; A big gold frame that sprawled around A lock o'--some one's hair. 'Twas took 'fore we was married, Thet there--your maw an' me. An' times I study on it, Why, 't fazes me to see They fifty year 'aint teched her A lick! She's jest the same She was when Sudie Scriggens Took Boone C. Curds' name. The hair is mebbe whiter 'An it was in '41 But her cheeks is jest as pinky, An' her smiles 'ain't slacked up none. I reckon love--er somethin'-- Yerlunimates her face, Like the crimsont velvet linin' Warms up the picter case. 'S I say, these cyard boa'd portraits, They make me sort uh tired, A-grinnin' forf upon yeh Like their very lips was wired! Give me the old digerrytype, Whar the face steals on your sight Like a dream that comes by nightime When you supper's actin' right. (A note from Gary: Regarding the DagNews post of June 4 and the "Rochester Knocking girls": Astute DagNews reader Bill Becker wrote to me reminding me that a daguerreotype the girls, Margaret and Kate Fox, can be seen in Dee Kilgo's book, "Likeness and Landscape - Thomas M. Easterly and the Art of the Daguerreotype" [Plate 13, pp. 92-3.] I'll also add that the "Illustrated News" of Jan 29, 1853 [pg. 80] contains a wood-engraving illustration of the girls from a daguerreotype by Meade.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 06-11-96