[Baby in Carriage]

Unusual among daguerreotypes of infants, which commonly feature very formally presented babies photographed inside a studio, this portrait of an infant sitting upright in a carriage is more like the playful family snapshots found a century later. The baby appears active and alert, looking at the camera, one hand gripping the carriage wheel spoke. Although the carriage is still, the child’s blurred head suggests the movement of the finely pull-cart baby carriage, or perambulator. Perambulators grew in popularity during the Victorian era, and were, like daguerreotypes, items less available to the working class.