Drawn from two private collections and the holdings of Henry Ford Museum, many of these images of American life in the years 1840-1860 have never been shown to the public.
Daguerreotypes are photographs made directly in a camera on silvered plates of copper.
The process, invented by the French artist Louis J. M. Daguerre in 1839, produces glittering, mirror-like images that are admired today for their brilliance and superb detail. In addition to this portrait of a telegrapher, the exhibition features superb images of blacksmiths, carpenters, and firefighters. Other rare examples depict female occupations and an African American peddler at work. A successor process to the daguerreotype, a method of making photographs on glass known as ambrotypes, became available in 1854. A surprise is in store for those who think of old photographs as stiffly-posed and crudely made, especially from such an early stage in the growth of photography.