Figure 1.--This 1/6th (2 3/4 x 3 1/4th inch) plate Daguerreotype shows an unidentified family with two children, a boy about 8 years old and a teen age daughter about 16 years old. As with most Dags, there is no information included in the cased about the subjects. The boy wears a single-breasted jackets with a patterned vest and long pants. American boys almost always wore long pants in the first half of the 19th century. We can't tell about the collar, but he has a smallbow rather than a stock. Notice that his father has a patterned stock and not a back one. Notice his faher's wide lapels worn with a vest that also had lapels. Mother and daughter are primly drssed in similar patterned dreses. Notie their tighly done hair styles. Mother has carefully combed the boy's hair, but the husband's hair is wild. We think this is an 1840s Dag, perhaps the late-40s or early-50s. We are, however, not at all positive. We do not yet have a good fix on descriminating between 1849s and 50s Dags. Perhaps readers will have some clue. The clothes suggest to us that the family was in confortable circumstances.

This 1/6th (2 3/4 x 3 1/4th inch) plate Daguerreotype shows an unidentified family with two children, a boy about 8 years old and a teen age daughter about 16 years old. As with most Dags, there is no information included in the cased about the subjects. The boy wears a single-breasted jackets with a difficultv to see patterned vest and long pants. Boys this age would tend to wear cut-away jackets by the late-50s and 60s. American boys almost always wore long pants in the first half of the 19th century, even youngr boys like the boy here. In Europe we begin to see boys from fashionable families beginning to wear shortened-length pants, at least by the late-40s and early-50s. This trend was later to appear in America. We can't tell about the collar, but he has a small bow rather than a stock. Notice that his father has a patterned stock and not a back one. Notice his faher's wide lapels worn with a vest that also had lapels. Mother and daughter are primly drssed in similar patterned dreses. Notie their tighly done hair tyles. Mother has carefully combed the boy's hair, but the husband's hair is wild. He does not seem to own a comb. Rarely do we see such a difference in hair grooming in the early photographs. We think this is an 1840s Dag, perhaps the late-40s or early-50s. We are, however, not at all positive. We do not yet hve a good fix on descriminating between 1840s and 50s Dags. Perhaps readers will have some clue. The clothes suggest to us that the family was in comfortable circumstances. Unlike the CDVs which appeared in the 1860s, Dags were rather expensive, just a fraction of a painted portrait, but expensive in 1840s-50s term. And this was before the huge industrial boom that brought unprecedented prosperity to America. Thus we mostly see people in comfortable circumstabces having Daguerreotype portraits taken. We do not mean to suggest just rich people, but mostly-middle class people or skilled workers earning a good income.

Created: 3:42 PM 1/13/2015
Last updated: 7:11 PM 1/13/2015