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8. Mabee, American Leonardo, 227; There are other hints that Morse may have known something of the process before 20 September 1839. Perhaps the most reliable being an observation by Benjamin Silliman, Jr., "Miscellanies," American Journal of Science 37 (October 1839): 375:

We have to add, that a professional gentleman in New York informed us before the late arrival of the British Queen, . . . that he was in possession of the secret, and in connection with an eminent chemist in New York had already obtained beautiful results, but is not able as yet fully to arrest them.

Of course this fragment of information could also refer to Seager or someone else entirely. There is at least one other source. In Robert Taft, Photography and the American Scene: A Social History, 1839-1889 (New York: Macmillan, 1938; reprint New York: Dover Publications, 1964), 453, n13, Taft wrote: "In Niles Register, Sept. 21, 1839, p. 64, is the bold statement, ‘We may say the secret is already known to one or more individuals in this city, but they are restricted from promulgating it, we understand, until the British Queen arrives.'"

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