2016-05-01-Ps-Origins of Frederick

Home , George Eastman Museum

ePOST-STANDARD 05/01/2016 Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page EMPIRE THE POST-STANDARD SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016

IMAGE OF MYSTERY ORIGINS OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS PHOTO, DATED TO 1850, UNKNOWN

Courtesy of Onondaga Historical Association

MAY17-19 7:30PM THE ONCENTER CROUSE HINDS THEATER

BROADWAYINSYRACUSE.COM

Copyright © 2016 Syracuse Post Standard 05/01/2016 May 1, 2016 3:43 pm / Powered by TECNAVIA SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 THE POST-STANDARD PAGE T-3 ePOST-STANDARD 05/01/2016 Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page

Ralph Wiegandt, research conservator and visiting scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester, performs an optic analysis of a daguerreotype of Frederick Douglass. The only known full-plate daguerreotype of Douglass is on loan to the university from the Onondaga Historical Association in Syracuse. (Courtesy of University of Rochester) Picture this

THE MYSTERY BEHIND AN EXTRAORDINARY PHOTO OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

By Rick Moriarty asked to borrow the photograph image. The Syracuse Public [email protected] so they can analyze it for clues Library gave it to the historical Researchers at the University to where and when it was made. association in 1954, but no one of Rochester are trying to solve There were many photo- knows when or where it was the mystery surrounding an graphs taken of the famous made, or even when and how extraordinary photo of a young abolitionist during his 77-year the photo came into the library’s Frederick Douglass and how it lifetime, including nine known possession. wound up in Syracuse. daguerreotypes. In fact, Tom Hunter, museum collec- The Onondaga Historical Douglass was one of the most tion curator for the association, Association loaned the full-plate photographed persons of his said the daguerreotype was daguerreotype of Douglass, a day. misidentified as a photograph rare example of 19th-century However, the historical of Syracuse abolitionist Jermain photography, to the River association’s photo is unusual Wesley Loguen when it was Campus Libraries at the because, at 6½-by-8½ inches, held by the library. Loguen, University of Rochester in late it is the only known full-plate who, like Douglass, was born January. daguerreotype of Douglass, an a slave, bore a resemblance Researchers at the univer- escaped slave who became one to Douglass and was a well- sity, home to the Frederick of the nation’s most prominent known abolitionist and pastor Douglass Institute for African abolitionists. of Syracuse’s African Methodist and African-American Studies, Yet mystery surrounds the CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Copyright © 2016 Syracuse Post Standard 05/01/2016 May 1, 2016 3:43 pm / Powered by TECNAVIA SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 THE POST-STANDARD PAGE T-4 ePOST-STANDARD 05/01/2016 Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page

The Onondaga Historical Association owns the only known full-plate daguerreotype of Frederick Douglass. Thedaguerreotype—aphotographchemicallycreatedonapieceofmetal—wastheworld’sﬁrstsuccessful photographic process. It was introduced by French artist Louis Jaques Mande Daguerre in 1839. (Courtesy of University of Rochester)

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 face that his right shoulder is out of focus, an intentional technique used by master portrait photographers. One can Episcopal Zion Church. even see the reflection in his eyes of the studio skylight that However, the historical association’s executive director at provided just the right amount of illumination to his face. the time, the late Richard Wright, quickly realized that the No one knows how the photograph wound up in Syracuse. photo was of Douglass, not Loguen, Hunter said. Born Frederick Bailey on a plantation in Maryland in The daguerreotype — a photograph chemically created on February 1818, Douglass was separated from his mother, a a piece of metal — was the world’s first commercially suc- slave, early in his life and never knew his father, who was cessful photographic process. French artist Louis Jacques white. He was raised as a slave but was sent at the age of 10 Mande Daguerre introduced the process in 1839. For the first to live in Baltimore with a relative of the plantation’s owner. time, middle-class families who could not afford the services In 1838, at the age of 20, he disguised himself as a sailor of a portrait artist could have their likeness recorded. and boarded a train in Baltimore that took him to New York Each daguerreotype was a unique image, made by expos- City. Upon his arrival, he declared himself a free man. To ing a highly polished copper sheet coated with light-sensitive avoid slave hunters, he changed his last name to Douglass. silver iodide to an image from a camera lens. Cheaper glass He taught himself to read and write and began giving plate negatives replaced the technology in 1860, but during speeches on the evils of slavery, calculating that to talk about their 21-year run, daguerreotypes produced extremely high- slavery was to help kill it. He traveled extensively throughout resolution images that even today’s best digital cameras can’t the North and went to England for two years to speak about match. his experience as a slave (and to avoid fugitive-slave hunters Because daguerreotypes were expensive to make, most in the United States). He eventually settled in Rochester, a photo studios divided the standard 6½-by-8½-inch copper hotbed of the abolitionist movement, and lived there for 25 plate into halves or quarters, resulting in a smaller image. years — longer than anywhere else he lived. The full-size daguerreotype of Douglass is stunning for During the Civil War, Douglass helped to recruit free its detail. Appearing very dignified in a black jacket and tie blacks to join the Union army and urged President Lincoln to and white shirt, Douglass is looking slightly away from the issue the Emancipation Proclamation. camera, as if contemplating his rising public stature. Slight After the Civil War and the end of slavery, Douglass blemishes can be seen on his face. Long whiskers are visible moved to Washington, D.C., where he held several govern- on his chin. Even blood vessels in the whites of his eyes can ment positions. He died there in 1895 at the age of 77 and be seen. is buried in Rochester’s Mount Hope Cemetery, the same The camera’s lens was so tightly focused on Douglass’ cemetery where his long-time friend, women’s rights advo-

ePOST-STANDARD 05/01/2016 Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page cate and abolitionist Susan B. Anthony, have had trouble producing because few is buried. Douglass made several trips to had experience at that time shooting por- Syracuse, the first one in 1843 when he traits of African-Americans, Wiegandt spoke to a gathering in Fayette Park. In said. August of 1850, he lectured on the evils A search of the studio’s records, which of slavery during a stop at Syracuse City are kept at the George Eastman Museum Hall on his way to the Fugitive Slave in Rochester, has turned up no record Law Convention in nearby Cazenovia. of a “sitting” with Douglass. However, A quarter-size daguerreotype taken Wiegandt said the studio would have had at the convention, held Aug. 21 and 22, good reasons not to keep a record of the shows Douglass sitting at a table, sur- sitting. rounded by many other people. It is the Douglass was a fugitive slave until only one of the nine known daguerreo- supporters in England purchased his free- types of Douglass to be precisely dated. dom for $711 in 1846. If the photo was Douglass was 32 when he attended shot while he was still a fugitive slave, the event and looks about the same age Southworth and Hawes might have want- in the historical association’s full-plate ed to protect Douglass and those around daguerreotype. Could the portrait have him, including any supporter who may been taken during the same trip? Ralph have paid for the sitting, Wiegandt said. Wiegandt, research conservator and visit- Douglass sailed back to Boston in ing scientist in the Department of Physics 1847, providing another opportunity and Astronomy at the University of for his photo to be taken in that city. Rochester, doesn’t think so. However, even though he was then Wiegandt said he believes the image legally free, Southworth and Hawes may mostly likely was made around 1850, still have been concerned about hosting judging from Douglass’ approximate age him and the notoriety surrounding him, in the photo. However, he said it is very Wiegandt said. unlikely that it was taken in Syracuse. Douglass gave a quarter-size daguerre- The daguerreotype was still a new otype of himself to Susan B. Anthony. and expensive technology in 1850, and However, Wiegandt said it cannot be This daguerreotype shows a gathering of people Wiegandt said no one in Syracuse would assumed that Douglass gave the photo at the Cazenovia Fugitive Slave Law Convention in have had the equipment and expertise to now owned by the Onondaga Historical Cazenovia in August 1850. The African-American man make such a high-quality portrait. Only Association to someone in Syracuse. In sitting at the table is Frederick Douglass, an escaped studios in big cities like Boston, New fact, it is possible that someone other slave and prominent abolitionist. The man standing York and Philadelphia had the wherewith- than Douglass paid for the sitting as his behind him at the center of the photo with his left arm al to take such a photo, he said. “sponsor” and owned the photo, he said. raised is abolitionist Gerrit Smith. “I’m unfamiliar with that level of mas- The daguerreotype Douglass gave to tery in Syracuse in 1850,” he said. Anthony is now owned by the Chester Wiegandt cannot say for sure, but he County Historical Society in West suspects that the photo might have been Chester, Pa. It, too, is on loan to the The historical association’s loan agree- taken in the studios of Southworth & University of Rochester and is dis- ment with the university expires Oct. 1. Hawes in Boston. The studio’s partners, played next to the Onondaga Historical When it is returned, Hunter said the asso- Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Association’s daguerreotype in a glass ciation plans to put it on public display at Johnson Hawes, operated from 1843 to case in the rare books and special collec- its museum on Montgomery Street. The 1863 and are considered one of the first tions room of the university’s Rush Rhees association and the university are col- great masters of photography in America. Library. laborating on a grant application to cover Wiegandt said Southworth and Hawes About the only thing that is known for the $4,770 cost of an argon-filled display were among the few photographers who certain about the photograph is that it was case that will keep the metal plate and had the knowledge and equipment in taken before 1854. That’s the year that an the amazingly detailed image it contains 1850 to capture the image of Douglass. engraving made from the daguerreotype from oxidizing. And he said many details about the image was published in the book “Autographs Hunter said he anticipates strong public point to them: for Freedom” in Auburn. The engrav- interest in the rare photographic artifact n Douglass is glancing into the dis- ing, a laterally reversed image of the when it goes on display. tance instead of directly at the camera daguerreotype, was made by prominent “We’re gathering more information — a portrait technique the Boston studio engraver John Chester Buttre. than we’ve known in the past,” he said. was known for. Since daguerreotypes were unique “Even if we don’t have all our questions n The critical focus on Douglass’ face images — there was no way to make a answered, I think it will engender a lot of is evidence of the kind of portrait lens copy of one like you would make a print interest in the community.” that Southworth and Hawes would have from a negative — Buttre would have had used and the obvious desire of master to have the one of Douglass in his posses- photographers to focus attention on their sion when he made the engraving. subject’s face. “Wherever Buttre was, he had the n The lens is positioned a little below daguerreotype with him,” Wiegandt said. center line, so that the camera is looking He said the next step in the university’s NEXT WEEK: They shoot . . . they slightly up at Douglass, another common research is to look at what prominent score! And, oh, the Syracuse Gray practice by Southworth and Hawes. person in Syracuse might have come Wolves — some in their 50s, most in n The photo’s exposure made into possession of the daguerreotype and their 60s and 70s, and at least one Douglass’ white shirt look super bright search for some reference to it in that per- each in his 80s and 90s — have fun and his black jacket somewhat gray, but son’s family correspondence. playing senior ice hockey twice a week also produced perfect skin tone. That’s “This fantastic daguerreotype didn’t at Cicero Twin Rinks. something lesser photographers would just appear in Syracuse,” he said.