Unknown American
[Four Children]

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • [Four Children]
Datec. 1850
Place depictedUnited States
MediumDaguerreotype
DimensionsImage (Sight): 4 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (12.1 × 8.9 cm)
Closed (Case): 6 × 4 3/4 × 7/8 in. (15.2 × 12.1 × 2.3 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number72.1
Current Location
The Audrey Jones Beck Building
108 Hevrdejs Gallery
On view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description


In the present age, when the life of almost every five-year-old has been chronicled in countless pictures on proud parents’ cell phones, it is hard to imagine how precious and magical a daguerreotype of one’s children must have seemed in the early years of photography. In this example, one of the Museum’s first photographic purchases, four siblings, well-dressed for a visit to the photographer’s studio, face the camera with a variety of expressions—wariness, ease, curiosity, and confidence.



Provenance[Latent Image Gallery, Houston]; purchased by MFAH, 1972.
Exhibition History"Turning Light Into Silver", 19 February - 30 May 2005, Audrey Jones Beck Building, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, lower level.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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