Immovable black hole; moving props.

[Northern Light]

The

Thanks. My first thought was for an air conditioning duct!

They wished! A stove was my thought as well, but for a wood stove. The arc might be from some type of lighting source, like a lantern with a curved top?

 

[civilwarincolor]

The

They wished! A stove was my thought as well, but for a wood stove. The arc might be from some type of lighting source, like a lantern with a curved top?

Not enough light for studios of the day. Even outdoors at noon you needed 4-10 seconds to expose an image. In a studio they had to have braces to hold people in place for the 30 seconds to two minutes needed to expose an image.

Besides it was too high and pointed away from the subjects.

 

[Northern Light]

Okay. I bow to your superior knowledge.

 

[chubachus]

This image of William Henry Harrison was from 1850 and was from a Daguerreotype from 1841, shortly before Harrison died. The original no longer exists and this copy is the only know example.

The National Portrait Gallery thinks that this is a daguerreotype of its 1839/1840 painting of Harrison by Albert Gallatin Hoit which I tend to agree with after comparing them in detail (see "notes"): http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/268344

Here is a the painting today (looks a bit different probably because of paint flaking and repairs):

Source.

The daguerreotype and any copies of it of Harrison on his inauguration are still believed to be lost today.

 

[civilwarincolor]

@chubachus -

Very interesting. I had not heard that before. I did a restoration for that a while back. What a pain it was to clean up the B&W for that image. I remember thinking that it did not look like a regular photo. Was thinking that it was an issue with an early copy technique.

 

[chubachus]

I was bummed out when I realized that it means that there are no extant photos of him now. There is always a hope though that the real daguerreotype of him might one day surface.