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Daguerreotype
of Samuel H. Fisler, MD.
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Daguerreotype
of Samuel H. Fisler, MD
This daguerreotype
of Samuel H. Fisler (1813-1893), an 1844 graduate of Jefferson Medical
College, was taken at the time of his graduation. Named for its
inventor, Louis Jacques Daguerre, the daguerreotype is one of the
earliest forms of photography.
Introduced
by Daguerre in 1839 the process involved a series of rather involved
procedures. First the photographer coated a copper plate with silver
then cleaned and polished it. Then the photographer placed the plate
in a box and exposed it to iodine fumes for five to thirty minutes.
This produced a fine coating of sensitized silver iodide on the
plate which was then placed into a camera and exposed to light.
After exposure, the photographer placed the plate into another box
containing a pan of heated mercury. When the mercury fumes brought
forth an image on the plate, it was removed and washed it with a
mixture of water and salt or soda then dried over a flame. Each
daguerreotype is a unique item since it is a direct positive image
without a negative.
This daguerreotype
is one example of the portraits preserved in the Art/Photo Collection
of the University Archives and Special Collections. The Archives
has several others of these relatively rare cased photographs, including
an early daguerreotype portrait of Jefferson's founder, Dr. George
McClellan.
Many of the
images in the Art/Photo Collection have been digitized and placed
online as part of the Philadelphia Historical
Digital Image Library (PHDIL).
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