Name/Title
Daguerreotype of Milo and Harriet BerryEntry/Object ID
2024.4.3Description
Daguerreotype of a man and woman linking arms. The man is in a dark suit with a plaid vest and black tie. His hair has a deep part over to the left side of his head. The woman wears a black dress. Her hair is parted in the middle with curls surrounding her face.Photograph Details
Type of Photograph
DaguerreotypeSubject Person or Organization
Milo H. Berry, Harriet BerryContext
Cabinetmaker Milo Hoyt Berry (1819–1907) came to the South from Newark, New Jersey in 1843. After settling in Columbia around 1845, Berry established a furniture and undertaking business in the city. Despite numerous fires and the destruction of his cabinet shop and warerooms during the Civil War, Berry operated at 107 Main Street (later renumbered 1440 Main Street) from c.1850 to 1903.
His first marriage was to Harriet Meiggs Berry (1820–1849). Married in 1843, the couple moved from New Jersey to South Carolina and had four children together. Upon Harriet's death, Milo married his sister-in-law, Julia Meiggs (1822–1906), five months later in 1849.
Invented in 1837, daguerreotypes were the first publicly available type of photographic likenesses. Popular in the 1840s and 1850s, daguerreotypes were soon replaced with their sister-method of photography, the ambrotype. While the photographer of this image is unknown, it was duplicated as a cabinet card in the mid- to late-1860s by New Jersey photographer, Joseph Kirk (b.1830). A drawing of Harriet also exists based off this image, possibly completed by Kirk.Made/Created
Studio
Unknown StudioDate made
circa 1843Inscription/Signature/Marks
Type
Makers MarkLocation
Back CenterTranscription
J. Kirk, Practical Photographer, 194 Broad Street, Newark, N.J.Dimensions
Height
1/4 inWidth
3-1/4 inLength
4-1/4 in
