Published to accompany the first museum exhibition of scenic daguerreotypes, this beautiful catalogue showcases a private collection of extremely rare outdoor views, offering a unique insight into mid-nineteenth century America as it started to become an industrial power. The catalogue’s atmospheric illustrations capture the rich tonal nuance of daguerreotypes, reclaiming their rightful place in the American visual arts of the period.
 
Scenic daguerreotypes, made over 175 years ago, are extremely rare today. Named after Louis Daguerre (1787–1851), daguerreotypes are the first widely practised type of photography, quite unlike any other: the result it is both an image and object, a unique vestige of its time and place. The selection presented here is almost entirely drawn from the private collection of American collector Greg French, who built it over a 40-year period into probably the largest of its kind. The types of scenery captured in these beautiful outdoor views are not limited to traditional landscapes: they include store fronts, hotels, cityscapes and cemeteries; rivers, waterfalls, ships and shipyards; schools, churches, houses and backyards; landscapes, farms, factories and gold mines; but also daguerreotype studios, railroads, marching bands and more. Together, these images build the fascinating picture of a young country not yet invaded by asphalt and concrete, metal poles, wires, cell-phone towers, traffic signs and cars. 
 
The original aim of many of these views is not always clear. Though many were probably taken for documentary or commercial purposes, their complexity and mystery warrant more careful, in-depth observation. What appear at first glance to be simple records of places or buildings are, in fact, windows into the daguerreotypists’ unique visual perspective as they explored this innovative technique. The daguerrean process was central to the finished image, and the results are a significant Nativist phenomenon in the American visual arts, well worthy of being considered along with the paintings and sculpture of the 1840s and ’50s.
 
With an essay by the preeminent daguerrean scholar Grant Romer and notes on the plates by the exhibition curator Allen Phillips, the catalogue aims to bring about an advanced understanding of this significant manifestation of nationality in the pictorial arts. Despite the dearth of surviving evidence, the rare and splendid pictures presented here illustrate how the daguerreotype process creates works that are amazing in their delicately long tonal range.