[Baby in Carriage]

CultureUnknown
Titles
  • [Baby in Carriage]
Datec. 1852
MediumDaguerreotype in leather case
DimensionsImage: 2 1/16 × 2 5/8 in. (5.3 × 6.7 cm)
Case: 3 5/16 × 3 3/4 × 1/2 in. (8.4 × 9.5 × 1.2 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Krista Dumas and The Francis L. Lederer Foundation, courtesy of Sharon Lederer in honor of Quinn Eleanor Benhamou
Object number2019.426
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

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.



Provenance[Michael Lehr Antiques, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2019.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no visible inscriptions]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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