Ninth-plate daguerreotype Plate "B" (Writer's collection.)

WRITTEN ON BACK: Nothing. POSSIBLE LENS: ? DRAPER QUOTATION: None. HYPOTHESIS: This plate may once have contained a visible image. William Henry Goode explained that Draper's earliest method of fixing images utilizing zinc, "is now generally abandoned, in consequence of the tarnishing of the proof after a time." This process or some other factor in the last 150 years may have caused the original image to fade from sight. On the other hand, the plate may always have been just as visually indistinct as it now appears. It was possibly saved within the plate-box as an example of under or over-exposure, a failed exposure with a different lens, or for some other experimental variable.

Ninth-plate daguerreotype Plate "C" (Writer's collection.)

WRITTEN ON BACK: Nothing. POSSIBLE LENS: ? DRAPER QUOTATION: None. HYPOTHESIS: Same as Plate B.

Ninth-plate daguerreotype Plate "D" (Writer's collection.)

WRITTEN ON BACK: "X". Which could mean the plate was unsatisfactory for further use or that the image failed to appear. The "X" may have been written on the back of the plate after a previous exposure. The "X" could have been made many years after the photo was taken, possibly after it faded from view. POSSIBLE LENS: ? DRAPER QUOTATION: None. HYPOTHESIS: Same as Plate B (also C).

CONTINUE
to Appendix: Plate box images E-G.

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to Appendix: Plate box image A

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