The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-01-15
RY MRS. c. O. ROBINSON
Times Hobby Editor

VIEWING the marvellous pho
V Biography and poignant arts
try of such motion pictures as
Little Women" or the recent
charming fantasy in technlcolor,
Lullaby Land by Walt Disney,
we have difficulty IN realizing that
less than a century ago no pho-
tograph ever had been made. The
wear that saw the young Victoria
crowned Queen Of England not
only ushered in the mauye decade
but witnessed the fulfillment OF a
dream of Louis Jacques Daguerre
the making of the first pho-
tograph.
In many homes today can be
found cherished tiny black boxes
of ornamental leather or papier-
mache, often inlaid with pearle,
which contain the daguerreotype
Of a beloved member of the family
who lived during the Victorian
era.
These quaint first photographs
are collected today because of their
historic significance, sentimental
appeal. beautiful cases or because
of their charming and sometimes
amusing subjects, since they were
made in the period of hoop skirts
and poke bonnetS, high stocks and
queer fitting long coats and the
rich, deep pile Of magnificent
WhiSkerS.
Photography had progressed by
experimental stages until Thomas
Wedgewood, Of pottery fame, was
able to catch the image of a sta
tionary and inanimate object in
his camera obscura in 1902. The
impression faded, however, when
exposed to the light.
In 1889, the Ere n C h m n,
Daguerre, in conjunction with eX-
periments by Joseph Nicephore
Niepce, perfected a process for
sensitizing a silver plate with
iodine and developing with vapors
of mercury the image produced
on exposure. The finished product
was called a daguerreotype.
Samuel F.. B. Morse, inventor OF
the telegraph, who was in France
trying to interest foreign capital
in his own discovery, asked
Daguerre for his formula with
which to experiment upon his re-
turn to America.
The next year Morse made the
first photograph in the United
States, the picture of the Church
of the Messiah on Broadway, and
the same year, 1910, Professor
John Draper of New York uni
versity made the first photograph
of a human face.
Because Of the time required
for exposure, daguerreotypes were
considered impractical for p0r-
traiture; nevertheless, in the same
year, Walcott and johnson opened
a gallery in New York, the first
in the world.
COON the time Of exposure was
Oshortened and the many gal
leries which opened were crowd
ed during. the sunlit hours. Ac-
cording to an early photographer,
Monday was the best day for
business because during Sunday
night courtship, lovers promised
to exchange pictures. Often in the
finished portraits the eyes looked
queer because the SitterS thought
they couldn't blink but otherwise
the daguerreotypes were exact
repeIicaS of the subjects as II look
ing i'll a mirror.
In that day there was no re
touching" double chins and Wrln-
kles, although the photographer
had sticking wax to fasten back
winged ears and wads Of cotton
called "pIumpers' to fill out hol-
low cheeks.
Daguerreotypes could not be or
dered a dozen at time from one
sitting as with our modern photo
graphs. The lovely, quaint, old
pictures found in attractive cases
and outlined with small gilt
frames, are each the original plate
on which the image was made.
There is but one Of a kind.
When a young and gallant cap
tain marched away to the Civil
war at the head of his volunteer
company he carried over his heart
a daguerrotype. 1t was the like
ness of his young wife, my ma
ternaI grandmother. Enclosed
with it was a lock of their first
sons hair. 1t was encased in
a fiat black box, lined with padded