Silas Eastham
[Portrait of John Ashworth Sr. and Isabel Ashworth]

Public Domain

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AttributionAttributed to Silas Eastham(British, 1824–1901)British, 1824–1901

CultureBritish

Titles

[Portrait of John Ashworth Sr. and Isabel Ashworth]

Date1848

MediumDaguerreotype

DimensionsImage: 5 5/8 × 3 15/16 in. (14.3 × 10 cm)
Plate: 6 5/16 × 4 1/2 in. (16 × 11.5 cm)
Overall (Opened Case): 7 1/16 × 11 × 9/16 in. (18 × 28 × 1.5 cm)
Overall (Closed Case): 7 1/16 × 5 11/16 × 1 in. (18 × 14.5 × 2.5 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the S. I. and Susie Morris Photography Endowment

Object number2020.15

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionOf the millions of daguerreotypes produced in the 1840s and 1850s, virtually all followed a standard formula: a head-and-shoulders or half-length portrait, posed before a neutral background. This work is atypical, presenting a full-length portrait of the Quaker couple John Ashworth, Sr. (1772–1855)—a Victorian industrialist, agricultural innovator, magistrate, surveyor, chemist, politician, and activist for employee and human rights—and his wife, Isabel (1771–1852). The pair face one another on the roof of their factory in Bolton, England, with the roof and chimney of the nearby mill softly visible between them.
Provenance[Silver Shadows, Huddersfield, England]; purchased by MFAH, 2020.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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