Daguerreian Processing

United States
ca. 1840s - 1850s
Ex-collection Ralph London

The process of sensitizing, exposing, and developing early Daguerreotype images was an arduous experience, but it yielded the first commercially viable photographs, many of which remain visually remarkable to this day. The pictures below include the following: A Box of Daguerreotype plates by the Scovill Manufacturing Co; A Plate Vise from John Plumbe, Jr.’s Boston studio; An Allyn’s Buffing Stick; An Iodine Sensitizing Box; and A Mercury Fuming Box.