--As the three above images demonstrate, the Dutch Reformed Church standing on the south side of the old New York University building in 1839, had a row of "triangulated / peaked" gable-type structures (windows?) equally spaced from front to back along its elongated side roof-line. These appear to vary somewhat in architecture / embellishment through the years, but they were clearly triangulated at top and peaked above the top of the roof-line.

--No exact image seems to exist of the Dutch Reformed Church taken directly from the side of the structure. Images made from the front of the building, show the long side of building at an angle (see above illustrations). Thus the four (five?) peaked structures in question appear almost beside each other when viewed at such an angle from the front of the building. However, the Dutch Reformed Church building was elongated with much more length than width. The four (five?) peaked structures would show significant space between them if viewed from the side (for instance, from the turreted side roof of the old University of the City of New York [NYU] building).

--In the distance behind the subject pictured in Plate Box Image "I", one similar triangular-shaped structure rises just above the top of a long roof-line.



[The two left images of detail in Plate "I" show lateral reversal in the original daguerreotype. The two right images are corrected.]

--It is theorized that Plate Box Image "I" is in fact an extremely early portrait taken from the turreted side-roof of the NYU building (or even from the ground alongside the NYU building). Then lateral correction of the reversed daguerreotype would place the peaked, triangulated structure shown in Image "I" at the BACK end of the Dutch Reformed Church in the distance, and jutting up a bit above the elongated roof-line of that church.

--A question then arises -- would not the proportions (length) of the Dutch Reformed Church require that a SECOND peaked, triangulated structure be visible along the roof-line captured in Image "I"?

--Rather severe tarnish obstructs the relevant edge of Plate Box Image "I" -- exactly where this second structure would need to be to fulfill the proper proportions of the Dutch Reformed Church building (reference the four images shown above).

--Careful tilting of a camera to record the negatively-reflecting daguerreotype surface of Image "I" however, negates most of the obscuring tarnish.


[Positive image of Plate "I" on the left.
Negative image on the right.]

Predictably, about half of another peaked structure appears to be recorded on the very edge of the daguerreotype plate as shown below.


[Negative image of detail in Plate "I".]

--There may be only three (3) extant portrait daguerreotypes so early as to picture the subject with closed eyes. Consider the statistical probabilities that one of these three images happens to have a building recorded in the background that apparently meets the specific proportional aspects of the Dutch Reformed Church which stood directly next to the NYU building in 1839!