PLATE: J

DESCRIPTION: Man standing indoors in front of an open window partially filled with a rectangular blue stain of solarization. His eyes were open and clearly delineated though he squinted as if gazing into bright (but obviously somehow diffused) sunlight. A fulcrum of hand and elbow tightly braced the subject's chin. The image is reversed left to right. The thick, rolled silver-plated copper plate measures about 2 x 2 7/16 inches (5 x 6.2 cm).


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

WRITTEN ON BACK: "Milton". The significance of this name is unknown. For possible hypotheses see Plate I.

POSSIBLE LENS: This image was possibly taken with the lens John William Draper describes second in his sequence of lens experiments to capture a likeness of the human face. Specifically, a lens of four inches aperture, with focal length of fourteen inches (about f 3.5). When used indoors in diffused light, even with a long exposure of five to seven minutes, such a lens would probably provide only a narrow depth of field. The sharpness of this depth of field could be distorted further if the lens was uncorrected for chromatic aberration (non-achromatic).

Focusing enough intensity of light on the face to clearly delineate the eyes and yet not blind the sitter was a difficult problem. Few individuals in 1839 America could have surmounted such obstacles to accomplish this distinctive, eyes-open indoor likeness of the human face. Just enough depth of field captured sharp detail from blurred nose tip to hazy ear.

In his own words Dr. Draper described the method he used to accomplish such a true portrait. Notice that his description of potential defects of operation exactly corresponds with visual evidence within this image (the blue stain).
DRAPER QUOTATION: (highlights are mine)
The point of maximum intensity for Daguerre's ray, lies within it [the refrangible spectrum] in the region of the blue. . . . Suppose, therefore, a plate be exposed in the camera during the space of five minutes, . . . if the focus has been adjusted to the focus for blue light, a neat picture may be obtained . . . whilst the red and violet rays will not have had time to give any perceptible effect. Upon these principles, I found that very sharp pictures might be obtained . . . by means of lenses of . . . four inches aperture.[116]
portraits can be obtained in the course of five or seven minutes, in the diffused daylight [indoors]
But in the reflected sunshine, the eye cannot support the effulgence of rays. It is therefore absolutely necessary to pass them through some blue medium, which shall abstract from them their heat, and . . . offensive brilliancy. I have used for this purpose blue glass, . . . to permit the eye to bear the light, and yet to intercept no more than was necessary. It is not requisite, when colored glass is employed, to make use of a large surface; for if the camera operation be carried on until the proof almost solarizes, no traces can be seen in the portrait of its edges and boundaries; but if the process is stopped at an earlier interval, there will commonly be found a stain, corresponding to the figure of the glass.[117]
The risk of failure by employing an uncorrected lens, is greater than the risk by a good achromatic.[118]
HYPOTHESIS: This plate is possibly a portrait of Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse taken by Dr. John William Draper about the first week of October 1839. It compares favorably with Morse's face as evinced in later photographs. Morse had distinctive features. Under magnification and close examination several of the lines around the eyes and forehead captured in the extremely narrow depth of field of this daguerreotype appear to match facial lines in later photographs of Morse. The depth of field in the daguerreotype is mere inches.

Additional support for this supposition comes from the juxtaposition of Morse and the suspected subjects of some of the other plate box images at New York University in fall 1839. Historical evidence documents Morse and Draper experimenting separately during late September and early October in their respective rooms of the New York University building. It is reasonable to assume at least some tentative interaction concerning their respective progress.

Morse could not have equaled Draper's optical expertise to solve limitations of Daguerre's process. In November 1839 the discouraged art professor wrote to Daguerre, requesting his help to obtain a better lens. Draper's superior lens system possibly prompted Morse's letter. The two men evidently did not work together closely during the fall because as late as January 1840 Morse was apparently unaware of Draper's important technique of adjusting his camera to the chemical focus.

Shortly before his death in 1872 Morse acknowledged that Draper accomplished the first portrait "with eyes open."[119] Was he recalling some shadowy memory of this image of himself?

Apparently to Draper's super-critical eye, all images in this plate box were somehow flawed. They were likely retained not as best products accomplished, but as examples of defects. Draper's best portraits probably came out on his best plates. Such plates would have been reused to save inconvenient delay and expense in the progress of experimentation. Draper, Morse, and all other early daguerreian experimenters never considered their first experiments significant. All their documentation and memory concentrated upon achievement of the first successful and practical methods of portraiture perfected in spring 1840 gallery products.

The solarized blue stain in the daguerreotype fits Draper's description of a less-than window size piece of blue glass he recommended. Close examination of the image reveals what could be pieces of wood or other material attached along the edge of the blue rectangle (rounded nail or bolt-like objects are visible). One of these attached objects is rectangular and the other is roughly triangular. They could be the support holding Draper's blue glass in its proper position within the window.

Perhaps the most important evidence supporting the idea this portrait depicts Samuel Morse lies hidden in an unidentified portrait in the Draper collection at the Smithsonian Institute.[120] The man depicted in the Smithsonian image appears to be the same individual in the plate-box image J:

--The historical record shows that Morse had grey hair in October 1839.[121] Only one year later (the probable approximate date of the Smithsonian portrait) Morse recorded that his hair was turning white.[122]

--Besides the year's passage, exposure time might account for most difference between these images. The 1839 exposure lasted five to seven minutes and required the subject's face hard-braced upon his hand. The 1840 exposure lasted ten seconds or less with unpropped face loose and natural.

--The earlier exposure required squinting into mirror reflected sunlight. Even filtered through blue glass, such light would pain human eyes. The outdoor 1840 exposure required only indirect sunlight and little squinting.

--Morse possibly wore the identical coat with cleft cuffs in each daguerreotype.

The same man possibly appears in this early daguerreotype from the Smithsonian's Draper collection and in the plate box which otherwise has (as yet) no definitive link of provenance to Draper. This visual evidence in conjunction with the web of other coincidental evidence proceeds as far toward absolute proof as investigation is likely to reach without forensic study.


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