Atwood Daguerreotypes
From the online Atwood-Carlton-Millett exhibit
This set of Daguerreotypes represents Westford’s Atwood-Carlton family around 1864. Within the wooden frame are twelve metal framed daguerreotypes surrounded by a velvet grid. At least four photographs were done by S. Shattuck of Lowell, MA.
The Daguerreotype was invented in 1839 by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. They are a positive image on a copper plate, which was often polished with a silver coating. The technology was succeeded by the less expensive Ambrotype and Tintype.
The dating of this collage was aided by the two cent stamps on the reverse of some. From 1864 to 1866, the US Government taxed photographs. The two cent stamp was for photographs selling for less than twenty-five cents.
The majority of the Atwood-Millett collection was donated in 2008 by family relative Deborah Stein-Sharpe, after the the death of the last family member in town, artist Bill Millett (1922-2007).
Daguerreotype
With wood frame 10 ½ x 11″
Individual pics 2 ½ x 2″
W.2008.13.11.5