America and the Daguerreotype [Paperback]

John Wood (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1999

Now available in paperback, America and the Daguerreotype brings together 200 previously unpublished images (28 in full color) as it examines the earliest photographic process and its effect on the way we view ourselves. For this collection, John Wood selected active images of ordinary Americans living and working: at weddings, river baptisms, band concerts, and political meetings, on farms and in factories.

In the eight essays that accompany the images, leading art, photographic, and social historians provide diverse and perceptive readings of the role that the daguerreotype played in shaping America's self-image. Editor John Wood addresses the American portrait, David Stannard writes on sex and death in the daguerreotype, Peter Palmquist reviews the role of daguerreotypes in the settlement of the American West, John Stilgoe discusses landscape and daguerreotypes, Dolores Kilgo offers an alternative aesthetic to daguerreotypes, John Graf focuses on the militia as a social institution depicted visually in nineteenth-century America, Brooks Johnson deals with daguerreian images of Americans at work, and Jeanne Verhulst reveals how modern-day artists have revived the daguerreotype.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With superbly annotated illustrations and interpretive essays by seven contributors, Wood ( The Daguerrotype: A Sesquicentennial Celebration ) commemorates the love affair between the America of the 1840s and '50s and the brand-new image-on-metal photographic process of French inventor Louis Daguerre. While many early daguerrotypes have been lost, Wood has gathered the work of professionals in studios (1000 in New York City by 1855) and countless others. Included are portraits of famous Americans, sentimental studies of children and shots of a lively and confident people busy on farms and in factories, at weddings, river baptisms, band concerts and patriotic parades. Contributor David Stannard comments on the era's preoccupation with morality and death, Peter Palmquis examines the daguerrotypes' role in "selling" the American West and Jeanne Verhulst tells how present-day artists have revived the daguerrotype in the modern idiom.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

As a companion volume to the award-winning The Daguerreotype: A Sesquicentennial Celebration (Univ. of Iowa Pr., 1989), Wood has now edited America and the Daguerreotype . Where the former concentrated on the artistic merits of the silver plate process, the latter explores these jewels of imagery as social and historical documents. Stellar contributors have produced essays, which range from "Sex, Death, and Daguerreotypes" to "The Progress of Civilization: The American Occupational Daguerreotype." A final essay looks at contemporary photographers using the technique. The plates and accompanying notes are well worth the cover price. Collectors, historians, and photo buffs will want their own copies of what is likely to be one of the best photo books of the year. This and the first volume provide a fascinating account of the last 130 years of American cultural history. For most library collections.
- Kathy J. Anderson, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: University of Iowa Press (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877456755
• ISBN-13: 978-0877456759
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 9.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,262,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)