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Southworth & Hawes
[Portrait of Clark Stevens]
1850 (ca)
Daguerreotype, 1/2 plate
Library of the Boston Athenaeum
Call number: Prints and Photographs Dept. (photo) UTB-2 5.4 Ste.c.1850
LL/112298
Half-length portrait of Clark Stevens (1764-1853), a prominent Quaker and a founder of the East Montpelier community in Vermont. Stevens is shown in Quaker dress, a large hat, and with two hands holding a wooden cane. Daguerreotype has been over matted in a slightly oversized double elliptical mat with an ornate protector. Daguerreotype case is made of wood and covered in black leather with a double line border; it has two hook and eye clasps on the right side. The front of the case is embellished with a simple single line rectangular design with small circles in the corners; the back of the case has a double-lined rectangular design. The front of the case is slightly smaller than the back. This discrepancy in size and the different front and back designs suggest that the two halves of the case are not original to one another and were probably not a part of the original packaging of the daguereotype. In the interior of the case, facing the daguerreotype, is a plain maroon velvet pad. The back of the daguerreotype plate has been resilvered, probably by the photographic firm of Southworth & Hawes. Attribution and date are based on photographic style and an entry in the day books of Southworth & Hawes at the George Eastman House (courtesy of Bates and Isabelle Lowry). This daguerreotype served as the model for a lithograph of Clark Stevens published in the Vermont Historical Gazeteer 4(1880): 579. The Gazetter also includes a detailed biography of Stevens. Daguerreotype accompanied by Vermont Historical Gazeteer entry and three land deeds for property owned by Clark Stevens in East Montpelier, VT. Exhibited: The Daguerreotype in Boston: Process, Practitioners, and Patrons (#58). Boston Athenaeum, September-November 1994. Gift of Dennis A. and Carol J. Waters, October 2001. #2001.44 (no.2)
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