Art
Maxham Daguerrotype - Henry D. Thoreau
- Item Number
- 150
- Estimated Value
- 150 USD
- Sold
- 110 USD to josepescado
- Number of Bids
- 11 - Bid History
Item Description
This is a hi res scan of The Thoreau Society's 1856 Maxham Daguerreotype image of Henry D. Thoreau. The image is 8x10. It is printed on acid free, museum quality, heavy paper. It is in a matted wooden frame with UV protection glass.
Item Special Note
The Maxham Daguerrotype
Calvin R. Greene was a Thoreau “disciple” who lived in Rochester, Michigan, and who first began corresponding with Thoreau in January 1856. When Greene at once asked for a photographic image of the author, Thoreau initially replied: “You may rely on it that you have the best of me in my books, and that I am not worth seeing personally – the stuttering, blundering, clodhopper that I am.” (Correspondence, 407) Yet Greene repeated his request and sent money for the sitting. Thoreau must have kept this commitment to his fan in the back of his mind for the next several months.
In mid-June 1856, during a trip to Worcester, Massachusetts, Henry Thoreau visited the Daguerrean Palace of Benjamin D. Maxham and had three daguerreotypes taken for fifty cents each. He gave two of the prints to his Worcester friends and hosts, H.G.O. Blake and Theo Brown. The third he sent to Calvin Greene in Michigan. “While in Worcester this week I obtained the accompanying daguerreotype – which my friends think is pretty good – though better looking than I,” Thoreau wrote. (Ibid., 426)
Source:
Thoreau, Henry David. Correspondence. Edited by Walter Harding and Carl Bode. New York University Press, 1958.
Donated By:
The Thoreau Society and The Thoreau Farm Trust stores data...
Your support matters, so The Thoreau Society and The Thoreau Farm Trust would like to use your information to keep in touch about things that may matter to you. If you choose to hear from The Thoreau Society and The Thoreau Farm Trust, we may contact you in the future about our ongoing efforts.
Your privacy is important to us, so The Thoreau Society and The Thoreau Farm Trust will keep your personal data secure and The Thoreau Society and The Thoreau Farm Trust will not use it for marketing communications which you have not agreed to receive. At any time, you may withdraw consent by emailing Privacy@frontstream.com or by contacting our Privacy Officer. Please see our Privacy Policy found here PrivacyPolicy.