Two items today... - - - - - - - - - - - On this day (May 5) in the year 1851, the following advertisement appeared in the "Boston Daily Evening Transcript": SPLENDID DAGUERRIAN ROOMS. We advise our readers to treat themselves to a visit to the magnificent daguerrian apartments of L. H. Hale, Esq, No 109 Washington street. Mr H. is not excelled by any other artist in the country, as the products of his skill, which adorn his beautiful gallery, will clearly show. The faces represented upon Mr Hale's silver plates are those of many of our most distinguished citizens, political, philanthropic and theological. We observe, also, the lovely countenances of several of the most beautiful daughters of the metropolis. The pictures are all very clear and correct, and by a peculiar process known only to Mr Hale are made lasting upon the plate. The cases are elegant and substantial and the prices for "pictures" thus put up are as low as are charged at any other establishment in the city. [Commonwealth. - - - - - - - - - - - and in the May 1840 issue of "Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, and American Monthly Review" (Philadelphia; ed. Wlm. E. Burton & Edgar A. Poe; Vol. IV, No. V. page not numbered): IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DAGUERREOTYPE.--Mr. A. S. Wolcott, of New York, has nearly revolutionized the whole process of Daguerre and brought the photogenic art to high perfection. The inventor, it is well known, could not succeed in taking likenesses from the life, and, in fact, but few objects were perfectly represented by him, unless positively white, and in broad sunlight. By means of a concave mirror, in place of the ordinary lens, Mr. W. has succeeded in taking miniatures from the living subject, with absolute exactness, and in a very short space of time. -------------------------------------------------------------- 05-05-97