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 THE DAGUERREOTYPE: AN ARCHIVE OF SOURCE TEXTS, GRAPHICS, AND EPHEMERA


  The research archive of Gary W. Ewer regarding the history of the daguerreotype

I'm taking opportunity today to post an item of no particular date, but which nevertheless be of interest. The following information is taken from Cist, Charles. "Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in 1851" (Cincinnati: Wm. H. Moore & Co., 1851) - - - - - - - - - Page 49, under the heading "OCCUPATIONS, TRADES, AND PURSUITS." (for the quantity of persons employed): Daguerreotypists... 40 Page 186-187, under the heading "MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS: Daguerreotypists.--Thirty-two, with seventy-eight assistants; produce to the value of eighty thousand dollars; raw material, 60 per cent. Our daguerreian artists stand high everywhere. Reed, the artist, who carried portraits taken by Hawkins and Faris, to Europe, states, in a letter home, that their works were recognized at a glance in Florence, by Frenchmen and others, as American productions, and superior to anything produced on the continent of Europe. Hawkins, in addition to his daguerreotypes, produces, what he terms, a solograph picture. These are portraits and miniatures which possess the beauty of superior oil paintings, and the exquisite finish of highly-wrought miniatures. Nothing can exceed their truthfulness of likeness and life-like coloring. They possess the great advantage of not being liable to change; while, on the contrary, like a fine painting, they improve by time. While these pictures are equal to finished paintings in color, they excell even the daguerreotype, in fidelity. Page 259, in a table under the heading "SYNOPSIS OF MANUFACTURING AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.": Daguerreotypists 1841. No.: 1 Hds.: 1 Product.: $950 1851. No.: 32 Hds.: 110 Product.: $80000 -------------------------------------------------------------- 09-14-97

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