A note from Gary: For DagNews of August 13, I posted a letter written to Southworth & Hawes by a fellow Boston operator "Chase." This morning I received this brief note from Mr. Chris Steele of Boston: "In reading Friday's DagNews for August 13: There is no G. S. Chase listed in Boston. In looking at my research I find that the date and address are the same for Lorenzo G. Chase." Perhaps there was a second middle name with the initial "S." What I worked from was a typed transcription made by Matthew R. Isenburg of the original letter in his collection. I checked the transcript and is indeed given as "G.S." Today's DagNews continues with a notice about Chase. On this day (August 15) in the year 1851, the following notice appeared in the "Boston Daily Evening Transcript" - - - - - - - - - - IMPROVEMENTS IN DAGUERREOTYPES. Henry Codman, Esq, is building on Washington street, for Mr Chase, a new suit of rooms expressly for Daguerrian purposes. This is as it should be. Daguerreotypists have been obliged to take buildings as they could find them, and then fit them up with the best lights they could, under the circumstances, but never really adapted for taking likenesses, and this is one reason why there are so many poor ones. The operating rooms are often some four or five flights of stairs from the street, being almost a day's journey up, rendering it next to impossible for aged or infirm people ever to climb them. These difficulties will be entirely obviated in Mr Chase's rooms, as they are being built to his order, and up but one flight of stairs from the street. He will have four lights to operate by, and as different faces require different lights, he will be enabled to chose the light best adapted for each peculiar cast of features. For a number of years past Mr C. has been unable to wait upon half the children whose parents have felt disposed to patronise him, but at his new establishment he will have ample room to do justice to all. He is determined to have every facility that will tend to perfect the art, and with his long experience, the public may rest assured that his pictures will not be excelled in this country or in Europe. These rooms will be open to the public in about six weeks, and during this time Mr Chase will remain at his "old stand," No 244 Washington street, where he will be happy to wait upon old friends and new. -------------------------------------------------------------- 08-15-98