Silver Faces

Before the camera became cheap and quick, having your portrait made was an event. You sat still for many seconds, a brace behind your head, and the picture came back on a sheet of polished silver or glass, small enough to hold in one hand and too precious to hand around.

Faces on glass and silver

Silver Faces shows forty early studio portraits, from daguerreotypes of the 1840s to ambrotypes and tintypes of the decades after. Many sitters are unnamed. Some photographers are known only by a stamp on the case.

The Project Space is kept dim so the plates can be seen as they were meant to be: tilted slightly in the hand, with the image appearing and disappearing in the silver.

Magnifying glasses are at the desk. Please ask.