ePOST-STANDARD 05/01/2016
Copyright © 2016 Syracuse Post Standard 05/01/2016 May 1, 2016 3:43 pm / Powered by TECNAVIA
Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page
EMPIRESUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016THE POST-STANDARD
IMAGE OFMYSTERYORIGINS OF FREDERICKDOUGLASS PHOTO,DATED TO 1850, UNKNOWN
Courtesy of Onondaga Historical Association
MAY 17 - 197:30PM
THE ONCENTERCROUSE HINDS THEATER
BROADWAYINSYRACUSE.COM
ePOST-STANDARD 05/01/2016
Copyright © 2016 Syracuse Post Standard 05/01/2016 May 1, 2016 3:43 pm / Powered by TECNAVIA
Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page
SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 THE POST-STANDARD PAGE T-3
Picture thisBy [email protected]
Researchers at the Universityof Rochester are trying to solvethe mystery surrounding anextraordinary photo of a youngFrederick Douglass and how itwound up in Syracuse.The Onondaga Historical
Association loaned the full-platedaguerreotype of Douglass, arare example of 19th-centuryphotography, to the RiverCampus Libraries at theUniversity of Rochester in lateJanuary.Researchers at the univer-
sity, home to the FrederickDouglass Institute for Africanand African-American Studies,
asked to borrow the photographso they can analyze it for cluesto where and when it was made.There were many photo-
graphs taken of the famousabolitionist during his 77-yearlifetime, including nine knowndaguerreotypes. In fact,Douglass was one of the mostphotographed persons of hisday.However, the historical
association’s photo is unusualbecause, at 6½-by-8½ inches,it is the only known full-platedaguerreotype of Douglass, anescaped slave who became oneof the nation’s most prominentabolitionists.Yet mystery surrounds the
image. The Syracuse PublicLibrary gave it to the historicalassociation in 1954, but no oneknows when or where it wasmade, or even when and howthe photo came into the library’spossession.Tom Hunter, museum collec-
tion curator for the association,said the daguerreotype wasmisidentified as a photographof Syracuse abolitionist JermainWesley Loguen when it washeld by the library. Loguen,who, like Douglass, was borna slave, bore a resemblanceto Douglass and was a well-known abolitionist and pastorof Syracuse’s African Methodist
THE MYSTERY BEHIND AN EXTRAORDINARY PHOTO OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Ralph Wiegandt, research conservator and visiting scientist in the Department of Physics andAstronomy at the University of Rochester, performs an optic analysis of a daguerreotype of FrederickDouglass. The only known full-plate daguerreotype of Douglass is on loan to the university from theOnondaga Historical Association in Syracuse. (Courtesy of University of Rochester)
ePOST-STANDARD 05/01/2016
Copyright © 2016 Syracuse Post Standard 05/01/2016 May 1, 2016 3:43 pm / Powered by TECNAVIA
Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page
SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 THE POST-STANDARD PAGE T-4
Episcopal Zion Church.However, the historical association’s executive director at
the time, the late Richard Wright, quickly realized that thephoto was of Douglass, not Loguen, Hunter said.The daguerreotype — a photograph chemically created on
a piece of metal — was the world’s first commercially suc-cessful photographic process. French artist Louis JacquesMande Daguerre introduced the process in 1839. For the firsttime, middle-class families who could not afford the servicesof a portrait artist could have their likeness recorded.Each daguerreotype was a unique image, made by expos-
ing a highly polished copper sheet coated with light-sensitivesilver iodide to an image from a camera lens. Cheaper glassplate negatives replaced the technology in 1860, but duringtheir 21-year run, daguerreotypes produced extremely high-resolution images that even today’s best digital cameras can’tmatch.Because daguerreotypes were expensive to make, most
photo studios divided the standard 6½-by-8½-inch copperplate into halves or quarters, resulting in a smaller image.The full-size daguerreotype of Douglass is stunning for
its detail. Appearing very dignified in a black jacket and tieand white shirt, Douglass is looking slightly away from thecamera, as if contemplating his rising public stature. Slightblemishes can be seen on his face. Long whiskers are visibleon his chin. Even blood vessels in the whites of his eyes canbe seen.The camera’s lens was so tightly focused on Douglass’
face that his right shoulder is out of focus, an intentionaltechnique used by master portrait photographers. One caneven see the reflection in his eyes of the studio skylight thatprovided just the right amount of illumination to his face.No one knows how the photograph wound up in Syracuse.Born Frederick Bailey on a plantation in Maryland in
February 1818, Douglass was separated from his mother, aslave, early in his life and never knew his father, who waswhite. He was raised as a slave but was sent at the age of 10to live in Baltimore with a relative of the plantation’s owner.In 1838, at the age of 20, he disguised himself as a sailor
and boarded a train in Baltimore that took him to NewYorkCity. Upon his arrival, he declared himself a free man. Toavoid slave hunters, he changed his last name to Douglass.He taught himself to read and write and began giving
speeches on the evils of slavery, calculating that to talk aboutslavery was to help kill it. He traveled extensively throughoutthe North and went to England for two years to speak abouthis experience as a slave (and to avoid fugitive-slave huntersin the United States). He eventually settled in Rochester, ahotbed of the abolitionist movement, and lived there for 25years — longer than anywhere else he lived.During the Civil War, Douglass helped to recruit free
blacks to join the Union army and urged President Lincoln toissue the Emancipation Proclamation.After the Civil War and the end of slavery, Douglass
moved to Washington, D.C., where he held several govern-ment positions. He died there in 1895 at the age of 77 andis buried in Rochester’s Mount Hope Cemetery, the samecemetery where his long-time friend, women’s rights advo-
The Onondaga Historical Association owns the only known full-plate daguerreotype of Frederick Douglass.The daguerreotype — a photograph chemically created on a piece of metal — was the world’s first successfulphotographic process. It was introduced by French artist Louis Jaques Mande Daguerre in 1839. (Courtesy of University ofRochester)
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
ePOST-STANDARD 05/01/2016
Copyright © 2016 Syracuse Post Standard 05/01/2016 May 1, 2016 3:44 pm / Powered by TECNAVIA
Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page
SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 THE POST-STANDARD PAGE T-5
This daguerreotype shows a gathering of peopleat the Cazenovia Fugitive Slave Law Convention inCazenovia in August 1850. The African-American mansitting at the table is Frederick Douglass, an escapedslave and prominent abolitionist. The man standingbehind him at the center of the photo with his left armraised is abolitionist Gerrit Smith.
cate and abolitionist Susan B. Anthony,is buried. Douglass made several trips toSyracuse, the first one in 1843 when hespoke to a gathering in Fayette Park. InAugust of 1850, he lectured on the evilsof slavery during a stop at Syracuse CityHall on his way to the Fugitive SlaveLaw Convention in nearby Cazenovia.
A quarter-size daguerreotype takenat the convention, held Aug. 21 and 22,shows Douglass sitting at a table, sur-rounded by many other people. It is theonly one of the nine known daguerreo-types of Douglass to be precisely dated.
Douglass was 32 when he attendedthe event and looks about the same agein the historical association’s full-platedaguerreotype. Could the portrait havebeen taken during the same trip? RalphWiegandt, research conservator and visit-ing scientist in the Department of Physicsand Astronomy at the University ofRochester, doesn’t think so.
Wiegandt said he believes the imagemostly likely was made around 1850,judging from Douglass’ approximate agein the photo. However, he said it is veryunlikely that it was taken in Syracuse.
The daguerreotype was still a newand expensive technology in 1850, andWiegandt said no one in Syracuse wouldhave had the equipment and expertise tomake such a high-quality portrait. Onlystudios in big cities like Boston, NewYork and Philadelphia had the wherewith-al to take such a photo, he said.
“I’m unfamiliar with that level of mas-tery in Syracuse in 1850,” he said.
Wiegandt cannot say for sure, but hesuspects that the photo might have beentaken in the studios of Southworth &Hawes in Boston. The studio’s partners,Albert Sands Southworth and JosiahJohnson Hawes, operated from 1843 to1863 and are considered one of the firstgreat masters of photography in America.
Wiegandt said Southworth and Haweswere among the few photographers whohad the knowledge and equipment in1850 to capture the image of Douglass.And he said many details about the imagepoint to them:n Douglass is glancing into the dis-
tance instead of directly at the camera— a portrait technique the Boston studiowas known for.n The critical focus on Douglass’ face
is evidence of the kind of portrait lensthat Southworth and Hawes would haveused and the obvious desire of masterphotographers to focus attention on theirsubject’s face.n The lens is positioned a little below
center line, so that the camera is lookingslightly up at Douglass, another commonpractice by Southworth and Hawes.n The photo’s exposure made
Douglass’ white shirt look super brightand his black jacket somewhat gray, butalso produced perfect skin tone. That’ssomething lesser photographers would
have had trouble producing because fewhad experience at that time shooting por-traits of African-Americans, Wiegandtsaid.
A search of the studio’s records, whichare kept at the George Eastman Museumin Rochester, has turned up no recordof a “sitting” with Douglass. However,Wiegandt said the studio would have hadgood reasons not to keep a record of thesitting.
Douglass was a fugitive slave untilsupporters in England purchased his free-dom for $711 in 1846. If the photo wasshot while he was still a fugitive slave,Southworth and Hawes might have want-ed to protect Douglass and those aroundhim, including any supporter who mayhave paid for the sitting, Wiegandt said.
Douglass sailed back to Boston in1847, providing another opportunityfor his photo to be taken in that city.However, even though he was thenlegally free, Southworth and Hawes maystill have been concerned about hostinghim and the notoriety surrounding him,Wiegandt said.
Douglass gave a quarter-size daguerre-otype of himself to Susan B. Anthony.However, Wiegandt said it cannot beassumed that Douglass gave the photonow owned by the Onondaga HistoricalAssociation to someone in Syracuse. Infact, it is possible that someone otherthan Douglass paid for the sitting as his“sponsor” and owned the photo, he said.
The daguerreotype Douglass gave toAnthony is now owned by the ChesterCounty Historical Society in WestChester, Pa. It, too, is on loan to theUniversity of Rochester and is dis-played next to the Onondaga HistoricalAssociation’s daguerreotype in a glasscase in the rare books and special collec-tions room of the university’s Rush RheesLibrary.
About the only thing that is known forcertain about the photograph is that it wastaken before 1854. That’s the year that anengraving made from the daguerreotypewas published in the book “Autographsfor Freedom” in Auburn. The engrav-ing, a laterally reversed image of thedaguerreotype, was made by prominentengraver John Chester Buttre.
Since daguerreotypes were uniqueimages — there was no way to make acopy of one like you would make a printfrom a negative — Buttre would have hadto have the one of Douglass in his posses-sion when he made the engraving.
“Wherever Buttre was, he had thedaguerreotype with him,” Wiegandt said.
He said the next step in the university’sresearch is to look at what prominentperson in Syracuse might have comeinto possession of the daguerreotype andsearch for some reference to it in that per-son’s family correspondence.
“This fantastic daguerreotype didn’tjust appear in Syracuse,” he said.
NEXT WEEK: They shoot . . . theyscore! And, oh, the Syracuse GrayWolves — some in their 50s, most intheir 60s and 70s, and at least oneeach in his 80s and 90s — have funplaying senior ice hockey twice a weekat Cicero Twin Rinks.
The historical association’s loan agree-ment with the university expires Oct. 1.When it is returned, Hunter said the asso-ciation plans to put it on public display atits museum on Montgomery Street. Theassociation and the university are col-laborating on a grant application to coverthe $4,770 cost of an argon-filled displaycase that will keep the metal plate andthe amazingly detailed image it containsfrom oxidizing.
Hunter said he anticipates strong publicinterest in the rare photographic artifactwhen it goes on display.
“We’re gathering more informationthan we’ve known in the past,” he said.“Even if we don’t have all our questionsanswered, I think it will engender a lot ofinterest in the community.”
