Robert Cornelius: Portraits from the Dawn of Photography

On view are 37 images by Cornelius and his Philadelphia colleagues, the men who introduced many of the technical and mechanical improvements that made America daguerreotypes so superior. Included are all the known Cornelius daguerreotypes, ranging from an 1839 self-portrait —one of the oldest surviving photographic portraits known in America —to a portrait of Charles John Biddle executed in 1847, as well as John Saxton's 1839 representation of a Philadelphia cupola, the earliest surviving American photograph.

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