Niagara Falls In Winter
Artist
Platt D. Babbitt
(American, 1823 - 1879)
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1856
MediumStereo daguerreotype
DimensionsOverall: 2 3/4 x 2 in. (7 x 5.1 cm)
InscribedStamped in gold on the case: "Mascher's Improved Stereoscope / Philada. /Patent March 8th 1853."
Credit LinePurchase, partial gift of Gerald Sprayregen and the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Photography Purchase Fund
Object number97.13
Not on view
DescriptionThis is a stereo daguerreotype housed in a Mascher stereoscope case. The case is leather and wood. The two sixth-plate daguerreotypes are oval images that depict the same view of Niagara Falls in winter with a single cloaked figure to show scale.Label TextPlatt D. Babbitt American (? - d. 1879) Niagara Falls in Winter, ca. 1856 Stereo daguerreotype in Mascher stereoscope case Purchase, partial gift of Gerald Sprayregen and the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Photography Purchase Fund 97.13 ~ Although not the first, Platt D. Babbitt was the primary daguerreotypist of Niagara Falls during the 1850s. Controlling the pavilion area which offered the best general view of the falls, he built a lucrative photography business with Niagara as a backdrop, selling daguerreotypes to an endless stream of tourists. He also produced views of the falls from other locations and in other media, including stereographs. This stereo daguerreotype is a copy plate of two whole plates that were made by Babbitt to be used in the Southworth and Hawes Grand Parlor Stereoscope. This was the only known device for viewing whole plate daguerreotypes in three dimensions. The original whole plates are located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Olana Historic Site, the home of painter Frederic Edwin Church, both in New York. Edited By: GLY Edited Date: 11/07/2003Exhibition History"History of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, February 5 - Summer 1998. "History of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, June 15, 1999 - January 2, 2000. "Silver Images: The Photography Collection at 25," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., November 5, 2003 - August 2004. Published ReferencesPHOTOGRAPHS: 19TH CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHS AND 20TH CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHS (NY: SWANN GALLERIES, INC., APRIL12-18, 1998), Lot 71, Ill. Kenneth E. Nelson, "On Not Quite Reuniting a Grand Parlor Stereoscope Pair," _The Daguerreian Annual, 2002-2003_ (Pittsburgh, PA: The Daguerreian Society, 2004), 10-21. ISBN: 1-881186-15-6
Charles Bierstadt