1844                57 Hicks Street, Brooklyn, New York.

Skinner was recorded in one announcement that appeared on March 12, 1844 in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Kings County Democrat (Brooklyn, New York).  The Ne Plus Ultra.—We have recently been shown some Daguerreotype miniatures, taken by Skinner, 57 Hicks street, which surpass in beauty, distinctness, and life-like expression, the best specimens yet produced in this line of art—so far, at least, as our observation has extended.  The somber aspect of the countenance and dazzling surface of the plate, which have hitherto been considered objections to Daguerreotypes, are obviated in the specimens referred to by tinting and gilding.  The figure is rendered permanent by the same process, and hence not liable to be destroyed by an unlucky slip of the glass, or a trace of the finger.  Indeed it seems as if improvement could no further go; and we can recommend all who wish to procure fac similes of themselves, or friends, at a very moderate price, to call upon Skinner, as above—who, by the way, is a dentist, and practices the art as much from love as for money.

Skinner is not recorded in other photographic directories as being active in Brooklyn in 1844.  Craig’s Daguerreian Registry does list John Skinner in 1846-1847 in Troy, New York, it is unknown if they are the same person.