The Franklin Mint History Of The United States, 1776-1973
Manufacturer
The Franklin Mint
DateNo Date
MediumSilver
DimensionsOverall: 1 3/4 in. (45 mm.)
ClassificationsDecorative arts
Credit LineGift of Dr. Eugene F. Poutasse
Object number76.81.64
On View
Not on viewThe 1839 medal: First Use of Photography in America
While in France early in 1839 to patent his telegraph, Samuel F.B. Morse called upon Louis Daguerre and demonstrated it to him. Daguerre in turn showed Morse his daguerreotype camera. Morse was impressed and wrote an account that appeared in the 'New York Observer' in April. Upon his return he had a camera constructed and took his first picture in September of the Unitarian Church. A month later Morse's colleague, Dr. John W. Draper, took a picture of the same building with a camera made from a cigar box.
In the meantime D.W. Seager, an English resident in New York, had taken a picture of St. Paul's Church. By October he was giving lectures on the subject and in 1840 published the first American brochure on photography. Alexander S. Wolcott obtained the first U.S patent relating to photography, a camera using reflected rays of light. There were many other early experimenters, including Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes of Boston, Mathew Brady, Edward Anthony, Jeremiah Gurney and John Plumbe, whose work helped perfect the daguerreotype.
By 1841 the daguerreotype had swept the country and most of the principal towns had a "Daguerrean Parlor." The zenith was reached in the early 1850's and thereafter daguerreotypes were rapidly supplanted by glass plates and paper prints which were more adaptable to mass production. But in some respects a good daguerreotype is not surpassed by today's photography as it possesses brilliance and shows detail far better than any paper print.
