overall: 22 cm x 17 cm x .5 cm; 8 21/32 in x 6 11/16 in x 3/16 in
Object Name:
Daguerreotype
Place made:
United States: Missouri, Saint Louis
P:
United States: Missouri, St. Louis
Date made:
1851-1852
Description (Brief):
The daguerreotype portrait of Native American man in Indian dress with a lap blanket is identified as "Black Elk, Oto Chief". The photograph is one of a series a of portrait daguerreotypes made of Native American chiefs while they crossed the country to meet with US Government officials in Washington, DC. When passing through St. Louis, Missouri, in 1851-52 these chiefs were photographed by photographers Thomas Easterly and John Fitzgibbons. Each portrait was a unique image. Daguerreotypes had no negatives; each photograph was exposed on a silver-nitrate covered copper plate. Daguerreotypes remained a popular method of capturing portraits from 1840 to 1860 when it was replaced with easier and less hazardous methods of negative-positive based photography like wet-plate collodion and albumen. The image is not matted, but framed.
