The Boston partnership of Southworth and Hawes produced the finest portrait daguerreotypes in America for a clientele that included leading political, intellectual, and artistic figures. This first photographic process, invented by Louis Daguerre (1787–1851), spread rapidly around the world after its public presentation in Paris in 1839. Exposed in a camera obscura and developed in mercury vapors, each highly polished silvered copper plate is a unique photograph that, viewed in proper light, exhibits extraordinary detail and three-dimensionality. Lemuel Shaw's imposing presence, sculpted by intense sunlight and gifted artistic vision, is a startling departure from the conventional posed portrait, customarily set in a studio and lit indirectly.
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Title:Lemuel Shaw
Photography Studio:Southworth and Hawes (American, active 1843–1863)
Artist:Albert Sands Southworth (American, West Fairlee, Vermont 1811–1894 Charlestown, Massachusetts)
Artist: Josiah Johnson Hawes (American, Wayland, Massachusetts 1808–1901 Crawford Notch, New Hampshire)
Date:ca. 1850
Medium:Daguerreotype
Dimensions:21.6 x 16.5 cm (8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gift of Edward S. Hawes, Alice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes, 1938
Accession Number:38.34
Inscription: Inscribed in pencil, verso: "Lemuel Shaw"
Marking: Hallmark, BR: Doublé / J.P. [see Spirit of Fact (Sobieszek and Appel, 1976) #9, p. 153]
By descent to Edward S. Hawes, Alice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes, Boston
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Daguerreotypes and Photographs (Centenary of the Invention of Photography)," November 4–December 7, 1939.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Thirty Photographers: A Selection from the Museum's Collection," April 12–June 1, 1969.
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. "The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerreotype of Southworth & Hawes, 1843–1862," February 1976–June 1976.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerreotype of Southworth & Hawes, 1843–1862," July 1976–December 1976.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerreotype of Southworth & Hawes, 1843–1862," January 1977–February 1977.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 1," December 4, 1992–May 4, 1993.
Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery. "Secrets of the Dark Chamber: The Art of the American Daguerreotype," June 30, 1995–October 29, 1995.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Ghosts in the Shell: Photography and the Human Soul 1850-2000," October 24, 1999–January 16, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portraits: A Century of Photographs," September 10, 2002–January 13, 2003.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Old Faces and Places: American Photographs, 1845-1870," February 3–April 25, 2004.
International Center of Photography. "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes," June 17, 2005–September 4, 2005.
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes," October 1, 2005–January 8, 2006.
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy. "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes," January 28, 2006–April 9, 2006.
Stokes, Isaac Newton Phelps. The Hawes-Stokes Collection of American Daguerreotypesby Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1939. fig. 17.
Rudisill, Richard. Mirror Image: The Influence of the Daguerreotype on American Society. 1st ed. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1971. p. 330.
Moore, Charles LeRoy. "Two Partners in Boston: The Careers and Daguerreian Artistry of Albert Southworth and Josiah Hawes." Master's thesis, University of Michigan, 1975. no. 100.
Newhall, Beaumont. The Daguerreotype in America. 3rd Revised ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1976. no. 95.
Sobieszek, Robert A., and Odette M. Appel. The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes, 1843–1862. Rochester: George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, 1976. no. 10.
Foresta, Merry A., and John Wood. Secrets of the Dark Chamber: The Art of the American Daguerreotype. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, 1995. p. 51.
Moore, Charles LeRoy. "Expression: The Soul of the Daguerreotype." The Daguerreian Annual (1997). fig. 6.
Romer, Grant B., and Brian Wallis, ed. Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes. New York: George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, 2005. no. 299.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 438.
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