Unknown American
[Lexington, Kentucky]

Public Domain

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Artist Unknown American

CultureAmerican

Titles

[Lexington, Kentucky]

Datec. 1855

Place depictedLexington, Kentucky, United States

MediumSalted paper print from glass negative

DimensionsImage: 5 3/16 × 7 1/4 in. (13.2 × 18.4 cm)
Sheet: 5 3/16 × 7 1/4 in. (13.2 × 18.4 cm)
Mat: 17 × 14 in. (43.2 × 35.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Alex Novak in honor of Anne Wilkes Tucker on the occasion of her retirement

Object number2015.218

Not on view

Explore Further

Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionIn the 1850s, the vast majority of American photographs were portrait daguerreotypes (one-of-a-kind photographs on silver-plated sheets of copper.) Paper photography, already widely used in Europe by mid-decade, was slow to catch on here, and portraiture remained the dominant subject. These views of Nashville and Lexington—among the earliest photographs of either city—are rare depictions of urban life before the Civil War outside the long-established cities of the East Coast.
ProvenanceCol. John R. Johnston album, compiled mid-to-late 1850s; [Janos Novomeszky]; [Vintage Works, Ltd., Chalfont, Pennsylvania]; given to MFAH, 2015.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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