Born into slavery, Frederick Douglass (1817–1895) escaped his bondage in 1838 and became the most persuasive orator for the cause of abolition, among other reformist causes. In addition to founding a newspaper and penning three autobiographies, he lectured extensively before and during the Civil War, "thundering against slavery," in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois. One of the first critical theorists of photography, Douglass delivered multiple lectures on the topic between 1861 and 1865, including "Pictures and Progress," on the medium’s ability to render subjective consciousness in an objective form. He advocated for photography’s potential to counteract distorted representations of African Americans and reverse the "social death" caused by slavery. Douglass posed for a series of influential portraits over several decades and circulated his image broadly in multiple photographic formats.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Frederick Douglass
Artist:Unknown (American)
Date:ca. 1855
Medium:Daguerreotype
Dimensions:8.3 × 7 cm (3 1/4 × 2 3/4 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:The Rubel Collection, Gift of William Rubel, 2001
Object Number:2001.756
Hermine B. Rubel; William Rubel, California, until 2001
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Facing the Light: Historic American Portrait Daguerreotypes," Friday, September 22, 1978 - Monday, January 15, 1979.
Crocker Art Museum. "Masterworks of Photography from the Rubel Collection," January 9, 1982–February 21, 1982.
Achenbach Graphic Arts Council. "Masterworks of Photography from the Rubel Collection," January 1, 1984–February 1, 1984.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Inventing a New Art: Early Photographs from the Rubel Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 1–September 19, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 28," January 9 - May 13, 2001.
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.
New Bedford Whaling Museum. "Freedom and Bondage: Frederick Douglass and Herman Melville in New Bedford," May 1, 2005–October 1, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions," October 24, 2008–February 1, 2009.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery: Selections from the Collection 73," March 28–July 31, 2017.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "African American Portraits: Photographs from the 1940s and 1950s," June 26–November 6, 2018.
New Orleans Museum of Art. "Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers," September 15, 2022–January 8, 2023.
Pfister, Harold Francis. Facing the Light: Historic American Portrait Daguerreotypes. Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1978. no. 105.
Thackrey, Sean. Masterworks of Photography from the Rubel Collection. Sacramento: Crocker Art Museum, 1982. pl. 30.
Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography. 1st ed. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984. no. 50.
New Orleans Museum of Art Piper, Brian. Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers. New Haven, Conn.: New Orleans Museum of Art, 2023. pl. 7, p. 62–63, 212.
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