Hi Ed, First, few veterans of the Revolution lived long to be photographed, as you mentioned. Then there are these factors to consider -- of these, few would have been well enough or inclined to be photographed, as daguerreotypes were relatively expensive; of daguerreotypes that were taken, only a small minority were identified in the case because, at the time one was taken, everybody in the family knew who the old man was -- I have plenty of daguerreotypes of old fellows that aren't identified, just as with ordinary daguerreotype portraits; daguerreotypes were one of a kind, the plate that went into the camera, not a print, so when one was destroyed or thrown out, that image was just gone. I can't think of any daguerreotype of a southern Revolutionary, probably because so much of the South burned during the Civil War. A card photo is a small print on paper glued to a rectangle of cardboard. The information at the bottom identifies the person and the photographers and the business about filing it is justva copyright notice from that era, so other photographers wouldn't copy it and sell the photo as their own work. -- Joe ------------------------------ On Sat, Jul 6, 2013 12:09 PM MDT Ed wrote:
Hi Joe,
The Grand America historical display seemed to be connected with the Glenn Beck show this evening. All I know about it was from an interview of Reed Moon on the radio on July 4th, I believe. The demand was so great that additional tours of the exhibit had to be added for this weekend. The display was not just American Revolution era, but extended to modern times.
Back to your collection:
I gather these are some of the reasons why your daguerreotypes are so rare:
1. This was the first photographic medium and did not gain widespread use until the mid 1800s
2. By that time there would have been few surviving veterans of the American Revolution because the youngest enlistees would be reaching their 90s.
3. Of those, a few opted to have their photo taken by the newfangled process which I assume was expensive at that time.
4. Of the daguerreotypes that exist depicting old people, the problem of positively identifying the person as a veteran of the war is difficult.
5. On the other hand, these early photos might be more likely to survive passing from one generation to the next because their weight could signify their importance as opposed to a paper object.
Did I miss anything?
I still don't understand what the card photo was for. Did one carry several of these for use as business cards of the times? What words does the acronym CDV stand for?
And, what is the description on the bottom of your five card photos all about? It seems the two Moores were responding to an 1864 act of Congress to place card photos of veterans as a record in the District Court of Connecticut. The description for Lemuel Cook is misplaced downward indicating it was added to an existing card after the card was made.
Was this perhaps an early version of the current effort of historians to record the exploits of WWII and subsequent war veterans before they all pass away?
BTW, all of this is somewhat related to astronomy because Wikipedia claims that the first correctly exposed photo of an eclipse of the sun was done with the daguerreotype process.
Thanks for helping us understand more about your collection,
Ed
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Ed, I forgot to answer one of your questions, because I was being called to lunch. CDV stands for carte de visite, French for visiting card. They are like today's business cards, but each had a photo on it. If you had some made up and went to visit a friend, you might leave one in a calling-card box at his home. It's just the name for this size and type of 19th century photograph. To prevent this topic from aggravating people who are on this list for its real purpose, astronomy discussions, I would invite anyone who has more comments or questions to contact me directly at josephmbauman@yahoo.com. Thanks again, Joe ________________________________ From: Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Saturday, July 6, 2013 12:59 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] TIME Hi Ed, First, few veterans of the Revolution lived long to be photographed, as you mentioned. Then there are these factors to consider -- of these, few would have been well enough or inclined to be photographed, as daguerreotypes were relatively expensive; of daguerreotypes that were taken, only a small minority were identified in the case because, at the time one was taken, everybody in the family knew who the old man was -- I have plenty of daguerreotypes of old fellows that aren't identified, just as with ordinary daguerreotype portraits; daguerreotypes were one of a kind, the plate that went into the camera, not a print, so when one was destroyed or thrown out, that image was just gone. I can't think of any daguerreotype of a southern Revolutionary, probably because so much of the South burned during the Civil War. A card photo is a small print on paper glued to a rectangle of cardboard. The information at the bottom identifies the person and the photographers and the business about filing it is justva copyright notice from that era, so other photographers wouldn't copy it and sell the photo as their own work. -- Joe ------------------------------ On Sat, Jul 6, 2013 12:09 PM MDT Ed wrote:
Hi Joe,
The Grand America historical display seemed to be connected with the Glenn Beck show this evening. All I know about it was from an interview of Reed Moon on the radio on July 4th, I believe. The demand was so great that additional tours of the exhibit had to be added for this weekend. The display was not just American Revolution era, but extended to modern times.
Back to your collection:
I gather these are some of the reasons why your daguerreotypes are so rare:
1. This was the first photographic medium and did not gain widespread use until the mid 1800s
2. By that time there would have been few surviving veterans of the American Revolution because the youngest enlistees would be reaching their 90s.
3. Of those, a few opted to have their photo taken by the newfangled process which I assume was expensive at that time.
4. Of the daguerreotypes that exist depicting old people, the problem of positively identifying the person as a veteran of the war is difficult.
5. On the other hand, these early photos might be more likely to survive passing from one generation to the next because their weight could signify their importance as opposed to a paper object.
Did I miss anything?
I still don't understand what the card photo was for. Did one carry several of these for use as business cards of the times? What words does the acronym CDV stand for?
And, what is the description on the bottom of your five card photos all about? It seems the two Moores were responding to an 1864 act of Congress to place card photos of veterans as a record in the District Court of Connecticut. The description for Lemuel Cook is misplaced downward indicating it was added to an existing card after the card was made.
Was this perhaps an early version of the current effort of historians to record the exploits of WWII and subsequent war veterans before they all pass away?
BTW, all of this is somewhat related to astronomy because Wikipedia claims that the first correctly exposed photo of an eclipse of the sun was done with the daguerreotype process.
Thanks for helping us understand more about your collection,
Ed
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Joe Bauman