DRAPER, MORSE, ET. AL. IN NEW YORK CITY
In September 1839 Draper assumed the position of chemistry professor at the University of the
City of New York. Draper brought William Henry Goode, his student at Hampden Sydney College
as his chemistry assistant. Draper's sister Dorothy Catherine probably preceded her brother to set
up housekeeping on Charles Street in New York City. Draper's wife Antonia remained in Virginia
with at least one of his other sisters, to await December childbirth.
University of the City of New York building
[Fig.
2 credits]
On 20 September 1839 shortly after his arrival in New York City, Draper received news of
Daguerre's process. Other interested parties in the city had already obtained details of the secret
process. The historical record is unclear, incomplete, and even contradictory on exactly how
news of Daguerre's process first reached America. Careful scholarship may eventually uncover
complete answers.[14] Apparently knowledge of the process came first to
two men, Samuel Morse and D. W. Seager, though exactly how each man obtained the information
is controversial.
A French printing of Daguerre's manual--or at least a French newspaper report of the
process--was likely brought to or brought by Seager on 10 September, when the steamship Great
Western
docked in New York City. On 24 August the ship had sailed from Bristol. If Seager was aboard
(he does not appear on the passenger list), then a story related in 1882 by A. Prosch (brother of
scientific instrument maker George W. Prosch) may possibly have some basis in fact. According
to Prosch, an English friend threw Seager Daguerre's manual as his ship left the dock.[15]
However he received the information, Seager claimed 16 September 1839 as the date he made his
first daguerreotype. If this date is correct, Daguerre's process must have somehow arrived via the
Great Western. Seager claimed the 16 September date in a 7 November letter to the manager of
the American Institute. In this letter which accompanied a specimen daguerreotype, Seager stated
only that he produced the image enclosed in the month of September and thus it served "to mark the
progress of the art."[16] He was not necessarily declaring the enclosed
daguerreotype, which had been exhibited at the American Institute's fair, to be his 16 September
first result. His earliest plates would have been experimental and likely very primitive.[17]
Seager's first specimen historically recorded as exhibitable was a view of Broadway showing "a
part of St. Paul's Church, and the surrounding shrubbery and houses, with a corner of the Astor
House." He exhibited this image at the Broadway shop of chemist James R. Chilton. The 30
September edition of the Morning Herald announced that "Mr. Segur" had taken this daguerreotype
about three days previous. It was on a small piece of copper "equal in size to a miniature
painting" and "imprisoned in a morocco case with golden clasps."[18]
Exactly how and when Samuel Morse obtained Daguerre's process is even less clear. Prosch's
1882 account states that Seager brought his pamphlet to Morse and his claim is somewhat
substantiated by an 1883 letter of Professor Charles E. West in the New York Times (to be
discussed later in this text). Perhaps West took his information from Prosch's earlier letter.[19] In 1855 Morse, himself, stated that "An English gentleman, . . . obtained
a copy of Daguerre's book about the same time with myself."[20] In his 16
November 1839 letter to Daguerre Morse stated, "the first brochure which was opened in America
at the bookseller's, containing your expose of your process, I possess."[21]
Although these two statements do not positively rule out Morse obtaining the daguerreian process
from Seager, they make it appear unlikely. Morse's November letter implies that he only obtained
the process after the 20 September arrival of the steamship British Queen, the evidence
excludes any bookseller in New York City from disseminating the information before this
date.[22] On the other hand, Morse's claim to own the first brochure
made available by an American bookseller does not preclude the possibility he had previously
used less complete accounts to produce his first daguerreotypes.
Whether he obtained Daguerre's process before or after 20 September, Morse evidently
commissioned his telegraphic instrument maker, George W. Prosch, to build a camera meeting the
exact specifications in Daguerre's pamphlet. Prosch rented space in Morse's brother's building,
where Morse also lived. The camera apparently took somewhere between a few days and one
week to complete.[23] As soon as Prosch completed the camera he began
to experiment with the help of Morse, Chilton, and possibly West. A. Prosch's account and West's
letter both describe one of the first daguerreotypes taken with this camera.
According to these witnesses, the view was made directly out Prosch's shop door. The men
placed the camera on the steps leading to the basement. The resulting image pictured "the old
Brick Church (Dr. Spring's) and the City Hall." Horse and carriage hacks with at least one driver
asleep in his carriage box waited for customers along the curb stones and iron fence surrounding
the park, horses so still that they appeared clearly in the daguerreotype. This picture was "a great
curiosity" and hung with others by the door "so that the passers-by could see them."[24]
West remembered that this event occurred in October but it may have been late in September. If
the camera was the one Prosch constructed for Morse and if the City Hall photo was one of the
first made with it, then it probably predated 27 September, the apparent date Morse made his first
successful (solo?) daguerreotype. In 1855 Morse remembered:
The first experiment crowned with any success was a view of the Unitarian church from the
window on the stair case from the third story of the N York city University. This was of course
before the building of the N York Hotel. It was in Sept. 1839. The time if I recollect in which the
plate was exposed to the action of light in the camera was about 15 minutes. The instruments,
chemicals &c. were strictly in accordance with the directions in Daguerre's first book.[25]
In an 1871 letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Photographer Morse described this image as on a
plate the size of a playing card. In an 1873 Scribner's magazine article, historian Benjamin
J. Lossing claimed the image could still be seen in a collection of earlier daguerreotypes Morse
gave to Vassar College shortly before his death. Lossing could have mistaken a later
daguerreotype (possibly taken in February 1840) for Morse's first effort. Vasser College cannot
locate the collection of daguerreotypes Lossing described.[26]
The exact date Morse made his first daguerreotype is revealed in an exchange published in the
New York Journal of Commerce. On 28 September this newspaper announced:
Prof. Morse showed us yesterday the first fruits of Daguerre's invention, as put in practice in this
country. It was a perfect and beautiful view, on a small scale, of the new Unitarian church, and the
buildings in the vicinity. The colors are not so strong as they might be, but we understand this
defect may be easily remedied.[27]
On 30 September the Journal of Commerce published a letter of clarification by
Morse:
Gentlemen,
In your mention this morning of the specimen of Photographic drawing by the Daguerrotype which I
showed you, you use the phrase, "first fruits of Daguerre's invention in this country", this may
convey the meaning that I am the first to produce these results from the process just revealed by
Mr. Daguerre to the Institute of France. If there is any merit in first producing these results in this
country, that merit I believe belongs to Mr. D. W. Seager of this city, who has for several days had
some results at Mr. Chilton's in Broadway. The specimen I showed you was my first result.[28]
Therefore, by 27 September 1839, three exhibitable American daguerreotypes existed, although by
Morse's word Seager's was the first accomplished.
Probably because he made his living as a portrait artist, Morse immediately began to experiment
with taking portraits. In 1855 he wrote:
I have now the results of these experiments taken in September or beginning of October 1839.
They are full length portraits of my daughter, single, and also in group with some of her young
friends. They were taken out doors on the roof of a building in the full sunlight and with the eyes
closed. The time was from ten to 20 minutes.[29]
Seager moved quickly into the public role of resident expert. The 3 October issue of the
Morning Herald carried an advertisement announcing that he would lecture on the
daguerreotype at the Stuyvesant Institute. In this advertisement Seager wrote:
The following scientific gentlemen have given permission to be referred to as being familiar with
the process and its extraordinary results: President Duer, Columbia College; Professor Morse;
James R. Chilton, Esq.; Jno. L. Stephens, Esq.[30]
When suspected practitioners Prosch and West are added to this list of illustrious men
knowledgeable concerning the process, historians should gain a fair idea of which men in
New York City investigated the process during the month of September.
It is significant that one important name does not appear in Seager's advertisement. After 20
September Professor John William Draper was also experimenting with the daguerreotype
process. Although he worked in the University of the City of New York, his experimentation may
well have initially gone unnoticed by Seager, Morse, Chilton and others in their group. If Draper's
work was known to Morse, et. al., before 3 October, his name would possibly have appeared in
Seager's advertisement.
Morse's first attempts were probably performed in Prosch's workshop on Nassau Street. On or
about 27 September he made his first exhibitable solo-daguerreotype of the Unitarian Church
tower. By this time he was operating his camera from the window of the third floor staircase of
New York University. It must have been after this date that Morse learned that a new
chemistry professor from Virginia and his assistant were also experimenting successfully with the
daguerreotype process in the same New York University building. Morse later stated: "About the
same time Prof. Draper was successful in taking portraits, whether he took successfully the first or
myself, I cannot say."[31] Evidently Morse was unfamiliar with Draper's
work before the beginning of October. Morse had probably already accomplished his version of
portraiture by the time he learned of Draper's work.
Draper and his assistant William Henry Goode arrived in New York City from Virginia, superbly
prepared to accomplish amazing things with Daguerre's published process. Their spring 1839
work with the Talbotype process at Hampden Sydney College in Virginia, as well as Draper's ten
years experience in all sorts of experimentation with radiant energy afforded him the potential to
be the best photographer in America.
Unlike Seager, Morse, Chilton and others, Draper and Goode worked quietly by themselves
without public exhibition or announcement. This may have explained why their work was not
discovered by other practitioners or the press for several weeks.
University of the City of New York building and the Dutch Reformed
Church
[Fig. 3 credits]