proceedings of the polytechnic association. 913 



The First Daguerreotype Portrait. 



Mr. John Johnson, of Saco, Maine, said he noticed in the address 

 delivered at the closing of the thirty-sixth annual fair, by Prof. 

 John W. Draper, LL. D., as reported in the volume of Transac- 

 tions of the American Institute, for 1865-6, on page 63, the fol- 

 lowing : " The first human likeness ever taken was by myself, in 

 the University in this city." Mr. Johnson was confident that there 

 was something on record relating to this point, and examining The 

 American Repertory of Arts, Sciences and Manufactures, for the 

 year 1840, he had found communications from Mr. A. S. Wolcott, 

 who was for a long time his partner in the business of daguerreo- 

 typing, both in this city and afterwards in London, and also from 

 Prof. Draper. The former claimed to have made his first profile 

 picture of the human face in October, 1839, and the latter in 

 December of the same year. 



Mr. J. K. Fisher said he was personally acquainted with the 

 facts in relation to Mr. Wolcott. The news of the great discovery 

 of Daguerre came to this country through a letter from Professor 

 Morse, who was at that time in Paris, which was received here in 

 the early part of October, 1839. During the next year Messrs. 

 Wolcott and Johnson opened a daguerrean gallery for taking 

 portraits. 



Several other gentlemen corroborated the statement of Messrs. 

 Johnson and Fisher. 



■ The following are the articles from Prof. Mapes' Monthly Maga- 

 zine bearing on the point raised by Mr. Johnson : 



Extract from "American Repertory" for April, 1840, page 193: 



Mr. a. S. Wolcott's Improvements on the Daguerreotype. 

 In our last number we gave a full account of the daguerreotype 

 as described by the inventor, with some observations relative to 

 improvements thereon. Since this, Mr. Wolcott has completely 

 revolutionized the process, and produced results heretofore unat- 

 tainable. The inventor could not succeed in taking likenesses 

 from the life, and indeed very few objects could be minutely rep- 

 resented unless positively white and in broad sunlight. Mr. W. 

 commenced his experiments in October last, and one of his earliest 

 observations led to the fact that, with the lens, the chemical and 

 visual foci were not equi-distant, and therefore to obtain a perfect 

 impression it would be necessary to bring both foci to the same 

 point, so that at the point where the most perfect image was 

 [Am. Inst.J FFF 



