Robert Cornelius Daguerreotype Project

10/31/2024

Are you a member of the Friends of the Library group at the Library of Congress? If so, Adrienne and I hope you will chose our project teaching the public about early photography and demonstrating these analog processes. If you’re not a member, now’s a good time to join so you can cast your vote for our project. Photography is FUN and we are FUNNY, so vote Adrienne and Rachel for the 2024 Friend’s Choice Award

The Conservation Division would like to teach people through a hands-on experience about 19th Century Photography. These classes would take place in person ...

09/02/2024

Come talk a walk through Old City Philadelphia with me.

11/29/2023

Old collodion portraits from my Advanced Residency Program in Photo Conservation days (inspired by Adrienne’s post). 1&2: ambrotypes 3&4: collodion negatives (right one varnished and with tissue retouching on verso) 5: salted paper and albumen prints and 6: notations from the sitting at the Osterman’s studio in 2005 when I sat for these portraits. Check out my Casio watch!

11/16/2023

Proud Friend Moment: My brilliant colleague, friend, and number one research partner Adrienne Lundgren has completed her book on the first government photographer John Wood, who documented the US Capitol expansion in the 1850s using collodion dry plates and making both printed out and developed out salted paper prints. Not only has she uncovered this obscure photographer, but she sheds light on the use of dry collodion for outdoor photography. She did years of research on this subject, as well as on DC planning, government, and politics of the time to make this book incredibly engaging. And as if that wasn’t enough, she treated hundreds of salted paper prints made by Wood so they would be beautifully represented in her book illustrations. Hop on over to Amazon to put in your pre-order for Magnificent Intentions or buy it at your local bookstore on April 30, 2024. Huge congrats to you !!! You are a real rock star! 🍾🥂⭐️🔥📷

11/15/2023

Testing out the Path 4K microscope camera today and loving the results. Took pictures of the 1: embossed brass mat, 2: Scovills hallmark, 3: detail of a hand taken through the glass and 4: detail of every crack in the man’s skin on his hands. Have I mentioned how amazing the resolution is in daguerreotypes? Wow! I love looking under the microscope. Never gets old.

10/17/2023

So satisfying….

09/23/2023

Amazing week working at the Smithsonian on their early American daguerreotypes. Thank you, Shannon Perich, for inviting me into the fold. My mind is exploding with new information and research discovery on the working methods of Henry Fitz, Walter Rogers Johnson and John William Draper.

09/13/2023

A photo of me in front of a photo of me holding a Robert Cornelius daguerreotype. Come to the Library and take your own selfie with me and the originator of the photographic self-portrait!

08/23/2023

Before and After treatment images of daguerreotypes made in John Plumbe’s studio(s) in the mid-1840s. There is a real unfortunate, longstanding, accepted practice of disassembling daguerreotypes, often swapping them out for different cases, mats, and preservers. Not only does it put the delicate surface of the plate at risk, but it destroys the integrity of the artist’s work and diminishes the research potential and monetary value of the object. When we acquired these plates at the Library in 1972, they were immediately disassemble to ‘examine’ them by a director at the time (stressing again here that this was commonly accepted practice at the time). It is unclear why the plates were separated from their original housings. In the early 1990s, the plates came to the conservation lab and were rehoused in a very thoughtfully designed modern housing (what you see in the before images). Now in 2023, they are rehoused once again but this time reunited with their original mats that our current curator located in a box in storage. I have replaced the glass with borosilicate but retained the original corroded glass in the same box as the daguerreotype. I am so happy to see these daguerreotypes presented the way the Plumbe studio intended them to be seen. I hope this cautionary tale will make folks think twice about unsealing and repackaging daguerreotypes.

08/05/2023

1913 Exhibition of early photography at the Smithsonian. Thanks to David Hanlon for giving me a detail of this image and Shannon Perich for providing the entire picture. So many amazing treasures in one cyanotype!

07/26/2023

Looking at daguerreotypes under a digital microscope today during a demo of Hirox equipment and imagining all of the possibilities for studying the damage on the plates from thiourea cleaning. Technology is amazing!