Daguerreotype of Bum-bemsue, a Sac and Fox chieftain, ca 1847
date: label: date made
content: 1851-1852
label: date made
content: 1847
name: label: maker
content: Easterly, Thomas M.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: A half-length daguerreotype portrait of Bumbemsue, Sauk and Fox elder, wearing hat with feathers, necklace of bones, holding a bow and arrow and an ax. His face is painnted with stripes and his shirt is hand-tinted pink. This photograph is one of a series a of portrait daguerreotypes made of Native American chiefs while they crossed the country to meet with US Government officials in Washington, DC. When passing through St. Louis, Missouri, in 1847 these chiefs were photographed by photographers Thomas Easterly and John Fitzgibbons. Each portrait was a unique image. Daguerreotypes had no negatives; each photograph was exposed on a silver-nitrate covered copper plate. Daguerreotypes remained a popular method of capturing portraits from 1840 to 1860 when it was replaced with easier and less hazardous methods of negative-positive based photography like wet-plate collodion and albumen. Matted, not cased.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Missouri, Saint Louis
topic: label: Subject
content: Men
label: Subject
content: Portraits
label: Subject
content: Native Americans
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
label: See more items in
content: Photography
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PG.003974.15
label: accession number
content: 121824
label: catalog number
content: 3974.15
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Daguerreotype
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal, copper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 cm x 10.5 cm x .5 cm; 5 1/2 in x 4 1/8 in x 3/16 in