Durable Mementos: Works of an Early African-American Photographer
Submitted on October 12, 1999 - 12:00am.
Geoffrey Redick - Fall 1999
WASHINGTON _ Out of the antique brass frames, in hand-tinted colors, stare memorable faces:
Abolitionist John Brown very nearly glares, poised and defiant. Poet Lydia Sigourney half smiles, prim and correct in a Victorian bonnet and lace gloves. Liberian President Stephen Benson sits in a three-quarter profile beneath a veil of tarnish.
These three portraits are among 33 daguerreotypes now at the National Portrait Gallery to share the story of Augustus Washington, one of America's first African-American daguerreotypists and a pioneer in commercial photography.
Abolitionist John Brown very nearly glares, poised and defiant. Poet Lydia Sigourney half smiles, prim and correct in a Victorian bonnet and lace gloves. Liberian President Stephen Benson sits in a three-quarter profile beneath a veil of tarnish.
These three portraits are among 33 daguerreotypes now at the National Portrait Gallery to share the story of Augustus Washington, one of America's first African-American daguerreotypists and a pioneer in commercial photography.
Full text available to subscribers only.