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 THE DAGUERREOTYPE: AN ARCHIVE OF SOURCE TEXTS, GRAPHICS, AND EPHEMERA


  The research archive of Gary W. Ewer regarding the history of the daguerreotype

The following selected text appeared in the May 1852 issue of "The Photographic and Fine Art Journal" Vol. 3, No. 5 (May 1852) pg. 320: - - - - - - - -- Our daguerreotypists have been unusually quiet during the past month, which we attribute to the improvement in the business throughout the whole country. . . . . .Mr. Gabriel Harrison has opened an elegant gallery on Fulton Street Brooklyn. These rooms are decorated and furnished in a style superior to any other we have seen, and the well known ability of Mr. Harrison as an artist, both as painter and daguerreotyper will undoubtedly secure to him a most liberal share of the public favor. Mr. Harrison's rooms well bear description, and we insert the following for the benefit of those who wish to follow his tasteful and artist like example. The Whitehouse Buildings, just finished, are said to be the finest ever erected in Brooklyn. The entrance is ten feet wide, with the Gallery and Operating Room all on the second floor; doors of brilliant stained glass; size of the Exhibition Room, forty-five feet long, twenty-five feet wide, and fourteen feet high, octagon in form, and elegantly painted in fresco, with Crocus Martis tint, white and gold, Elizabethian in design, and the whole lighted with a large oblong skylight of ground glass, thereby producing a light of such softness that Daguerreotypes, and other works of Arts, can be looked at with a degree of pleasure hitherto not afforded in like establishments. THE OPERATING ROOM.--Is fifty feet long, thirty feet wide and frescoed in a quiet, subdued tint, which is of great importance to the producing of a first rate Daguerreotype, as thereby we have no reflected lights to destroy the quality, roundness and strength of shadows, it also preserves the natural sharpness of the eyes, as but one light will be observed on the Iris, instead of half a dozen--as is the case in most Daguerreotypes, form the effect of harsh white walls, &c. &c. THE LIGHT.--Under which the sitters are placed to have their portraits taken, is the largest in the world, and contains over two hundred and fifty square feet of the best English white plate glass, faces about North-East, angle of thirty-five degrees--the best position for a light to prevent abrupt shadows under the eyes, nose and chin, and has a tendency to produce miniatures of such softness and roundness of flesh that they must become at once the favorites with all persons of refined and artistic taste. THE LADIES DRESSING-ROOM.--Is contiguous to the Operating Room; is fifteen feet square, and fitted up in the most chaste and beautiful style with salmon color and marble top furniture. Toilet always kept in order, and of the first quality. -------------------------------------------------------------- 05-02-98

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