Name/Title
Rebecca WeeksDescription
Mrs. William (Kate Burtis) Collins explains in a handwritten note accompanying the imagae of her grandmother, Rebecca Weeks, that the daguerreotype was one of the first taken in New York City in 1840.
The daguerreotype (de'geretaip) French, named after its inventor, , was the first publicly announced photographic process, and for nearly twenty years, it was the one most commonly used. It was invented by Louis-Jaques-Mandé Daguerre and introduced worldwide in 1839.
This daguerreotype is in a wooden case covered with either tooled leather or embossed paper. It is known as as sixth plate measuring 2 2/3" x 3 1/4" (the largest being 8 1/2" x 6 1/2"). The orientation of the photograph is a reverse image.