Tag Archives: Lecturer

Davis, Ari

Daguerreian Stock and Materials, Lecturer, , ,

1839-1841       11 Cornhill, Boston, Massachusetts.[1]

1842                19 Court Sq., Boston, Massachusetts.1

1843                75 Court, Boston, Massachusetts.1

1844-1845       Business Address Unknown, Boston, Massachusetts.1  

1811 May 18.  Vital Records of Princeton, Massachusetts.

Born May 18, 1811 to Daniel & Lydia Davis.

1838-1845.  Boston City Directories.  Boston, Massachusetts.

Philosophical Instrument Maker.

1840 June 9.  Boston Daily Evening Transcript.  (Boston, Massachusetts.)  June 9, 1840, N. P.

Daguerreotype apparatus, of every variety, and of variety superior quality, for sale at the very low price of $25 a set, by A. Davis, No. 11 Cornhill.

Advertisement ran from June 9 to June 23, 1840

1841 April 2.  Lowell Advertiser.  (Lowell, Massachusetts.)  April 2, 1841, Vol. 5, No. 113, P. 2.

We would call attention to the Lecture advertised in another column, at the City Hall, by Mr. A. Davis, on the Daguerreotype, this evening.  Mr. Davis is the gentleman who lectured, a few evenings since, before the institute, on Electro-Magnestism, to the great satisfaction of the audience.  It may be presumed that the proposed Lecture will be exceedingly interesting, as the subject is one of universal interest; and may be expected to be properly handled.

The public will please take due notice, and govern themselves accordingly.

1841 April 2.  Lowell Advertiser.  (Lowell, Massachusetts.)  April 2, 1841, Vol. 5, No. 113, P. 3.

Daguerreotype Apparatus.  The subscriber having been engaged for some time in constructing Daguerreotype Apparatus, as brought it to a high degree of perfection, and as those who have purchased his apparatus have been eminently successful in obtaining solar paintings, he offers it to the public with much confidence.  He has modified somewhat the apparatus, as described by Daguerre, and has rendered it more portable, lighter and more elegant, and as every part of it is put together with his patent dove-tailing machine, it insures strength and tightness in every portion of the apparatus, and effectually prevents all warping and cracking.  He also affords it cheaper than any other person can make it.

To those who have never seen solar painting, it may be proper to say, that no description can convey any idea of their beauty, accuracy, and wonderful minuteness.  It can be applied to every object on which the rays of light (sun-light is not necessary) can be made to fall; landscape, buildings, paintings, engravings, statuary, miniatures, &c. &c., may be copied in a few minutes, with an accuracy that no draughtsman could ever attain. 

The process is simple; it requires no acquaintance with Chemistry, and no knowledge of drawing, for the light engraves itself upon the prepared plate, and it may be performed by any one by following the process which is fully described in a pamphlet accompanying each set of apparatus.  As some have no idea of the case with which it may be done, it may be well to give a hasty sketch of it.

The drawings are made upon plates of copper silvered on one side.  The plate, previously polished, is first exposed to the action of iodine in the box marked A; in 3 or 4 minutes it is sufficiently coated.  It is than exposed, for a few minutes, to the image of whatever object we with to copy in the camera marked B.  It is next placed in the box C.  in the bottom of which is a small cup containing mercury is heated until the thermometer indicates the degree mentioned in the pamphlet, and rising in vapor covers the plate the plate wherever the light has faded off the iodine.  It is afterward washed with salt and water, and the process is complete.  The picture may be preserved an indefinite length of time without change.

For colleges or academies, and all public lectures, this forms one of the most interesting experiments that can be exhibited to an audience; the process requires but about 15 minutes in a bright day to complete it, and the result being o all so surprising and beautiful, that it never fails to excite the greatest interest.  The theory of it also is elegant and in the greatest interest.  The theory of it also is elegant and ingenious.

The price for a complete set is $25.00.  Orders from any part of the country, accompanied by the money, will be immediately executed.

Plates, polishing powder, & c. &c.. Always on hand.  Apply to A. Davis, No. 11 Cornhill, Boston, Mass.  Remember Mr. Davis’s Lecture on the daguerreotype this evening at the City Hall. 

1841 April 2.  Lowell Advertiser.  (Lowell, Massachusetts.) April 2, 1841, Vol. 5, No. 113, P. 3.

Lecture at City Hall, Thursday Evening, April 2, At 7½ O’clock.  By Mr. A. Davis, Of Boston.

On the Daguerreotype, at 7½ o’clock, when the principles of the Daguerreotype apparatus will be explained and the manner of using it clearly illustrated in taking likenesses of individuals, or any object in nature or art, it will be clearly shown, that by this operation exact imitations must necessarily be produced, the Daguerreotype having recently been essentially improved by Mr. Plumbe, making the production still more perfect; he, together with Mr. Davis feel additional confidence in their ability to satisfy the demands and expectations of the curious.

N. B. During the afternoon from 4 to 6 o’clock previous to the Lecture, a view or portrait will be taken at the City Hall, when those holding tickets of admission to the Lecture, will be afforded an opportunity of seeing the apparatus and the process of using it.

Gentlemen’s Tickets, 25 cents; Ladies’ Tickets, 12½ cts. May be had at the Bookstores, at Carletons’ and of the Librarian, at the Mechanics’ Hall, and at the door.  March 29, 1841.

[1] A Directory Of Massachusetts Photographers 1839-1900.

Mr. Long

Daguerreotypes, Lecturer, ,

1840                Hall of The Augusta House, Augusta, Maine.

Mr. Long was recorded in one announcement that appeared on June 13, 1840 in the Gospel Banner (Augusta, Maine).  The Daguerreotype.  Mr. Long, a competent lecturer, is in this place, and delivered a lecture and gave an exhibition on the Daguerreotype art at the Hall of the Augusta House on Monday last.  In consequence of a misunderstanding amongst our citizens, the day not being supposed to be sufficiently pleasant for the exhibition, the attendance was small.  He proposes to repeat the lecture and exhibition at the same place, this (Saturday) P. M. at 2 o’clock.  Tickets 25 cents each.  Those who were present on Monday are invited to be present again at that time gratuitously.

We have had some conversation with Mr. Long and are satisfied that his lecture must be highly interesting and valuable, as exhibiting many important facts in natural Philosophy.  The pictures taken are to the very life.  Nothing can be so perfect.  Even images impressed upon the plate, which are, in the distance, to small to be minutely examined by the naked eye, will, by an application of the microscope, be enlarged and then every minute feature of the original will be distinctly seen .  Nearer objects, of course, appear perfect.  The exhibition is worthy of patronage.

Mr. Long (first name is unknown) is not recorded in other photographic directories as being active in Maine.

George C. Wood

Daguerreotypes, Lecturer, , ,

1850                Address Unknown, Boonville, Missouri.

George C. Wood appeared in one article on October 30, 1850 in the Democratic Banner  (Bowling Green, Missouri).  Itinerant Scamp.—For some weeks past one George C. Wood has been lecturing the people of Boonville on the subject of Phrenology and taking Daguerreotype portraits.  Indeed his “name has been in the papers” of that city and he seems to have been quite a lion.  It suddenly turns out however that he is a great scamp—that he had left his own wife and run off with the wife of a Mr. Larned of Tecumseh, Michigan.  Mr. Wood hearing this information had reached Boonville, suddenly decamped—leaving the editors and citizens who had toasted him, in a nice p-h-i-x!  So much for a hasty endorsement of a stranger.—[Mo. Statesman.

George C. Wood is not recorded in other photographic directories as being active in Boonville, Missouri.  Craig’s Daguerreian Registry does record a George C. Wood who was active in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1851-1852.

Samuel S. Sullivan

Daguerreotypes, , ,

1841-1842       Elliot House, Bath, Maine.

Samuel S. Sullivan was recorded in four announcements and two advertisements in the Lincoln Telegraph (Bath, Maine).  The first announcement appeared on September 16, 1841.  Lecture on the Daguerreotype.  We have received a letter from Mr. Purkitt, a gentleman well and favorably known to our citizens as an able and eloquent lecturer, of which the following is an extract, which we commend to the attention of our readers.

“Permit me my dear Clarke, en passant, to inform you that Mr. S. S. Sullivan, of Boston, is intending to visit your place for the purpose of delivering one or more lectures on the novel and exceedingly simple and beautiful discovery of Daguerre.  Mr. S.is well educated, a gentleman of fine talents, of vivid imagination and an excellent writer.  He will be listened to, I am persuaded, with great interest by the intelligent citizens of Bath.

The discovery of Daguerre is new and wonderful.  But strange to say, like many other discoveries, it has fallen into bad hands—into the hands of men who have never investigated, and therefore, cannot be supposed to understand either its principles or its details—men, who are as ignorant of Photography as a science, as a horse is of the principles of the Steam engine—in a word, it has fallen into the hands of men whose only qualification to teach it is, their—ignorance.  Though there be many who practice the Daguerreotype as an art, yet how few are competent to explain it!  Their knowledge appears to be all in their fingers—and alas! that it appears so badly there—no in their heads,—I am persuaded that your citizens need only exercise their own discernment and sound practical good sense to perceive the difference toto caelo—between truth and fiction, knowledge and ignorance, merit and pretension.

I believe I am correct in saying that there never has been but one gentleman who has lectured upon this subject in this country, and he, I think, was a foreigner.  The fact is, there are no books upon the subject; those, therefore who investigate it must have resources within themselves—must be able by a knowledge of details to establish general principles and to carry them out into practice.  It is for this reason that I think that the lectures of Mr. S. will command the attention and receive the approbation of gentlemen of science and all the lovers of the arts.  I hope the good citizens of Bath will give him a hearing, as I doubt not they will find their evening spent in an agreeable and instructive manner.

I understand he intends to lecture on Monday evening next, of which I presume due notice will be given.

With respect to his Daguerreotype Portraitures I can only saying the language of one of your contemporary journals, “they are wonderfully perfect, and surpass in correctness and beauty any that I have ever seen; they as far exceed those that have often times come under my notice, as an exquisitely finished steel engraving does one coarsely and clumsily executed on wood.  Indeed, I can conceive of nothing which can be added to make his pictures more life-like, unless it be the colors and tints of nature itself.  In this respect only, if at all, can a painted portrait be preferred. In all others, in accuracy and and minuteness of delineation, in the striking correctness of the features, in the delicate alternations of light and shade, the Daguerreotype Miniatures is as much superior to a painting, as the veritable productions of Nature are to the pencillings of the most accomplished artist.  These superiorities, together with the ease with which the likenesses are taken, (requiring a sitting of only a few seconds,) and the low price at which they can be obtained, must render them exceedingly popular.”  But your citizens will be able by an inspection of his specimens, to satisfy themselves of the wonderful results of this process.

I doubt not that many of your friends and neighbors will embrace the opportunity that will be presented to them of  ‘seizing the shadow ere the substance fades’—of snatching from oblivion some faces, that are worth saving from the corrosions of time.”  Yours truly. 

The second announcement appeared on September 23, 1841. The Daguerreotype.  The lecture on this new discovery, alluded to in our last, will take place on Monday evening next.  The reason it did not occur on Monday evening last was owing to the providential detention of the Lecturer, Mr. Sullivan, in Boston.  We trust our citizens will give him a full house.    

The third announcement appeared on October 14, 1841.  The Daguerreotype.  We have taken the trouble to examine several specimens of Daguerreotype Miniatures in Mr. Sullivan’s room at the Elliot House, with which we were much pleased.  The weather since he has been here has been exceedingly unfavorable, requiring considerable experimenting, in order to turn off perfect likenesses.  His specimens to day are very nearly perfect; and to-morrow he will probably be able to make them first rate.  Every body should call and examine this truly wonderful process.           

The fourth announcement appeared on October 21, 1841.  Particular attention is invited to the advertisement of Mr. Sullivan, who is now prepared to take first rate miniatures at the Elliot House.—Call on, Ladies and Gentlemen.

The first advertisement ran from October 21 to December 2, 1841.  Photography. Mr. Sullivan would inform the citizens of bath and its vicinity, that he has made arrangements to take Daguerreotype Miniatures. at his rooms in the Elliot House, where he will remain for a few days only; and will be happy to show specimens of this beautiful art to any who may favor him with a call.

The second advertisement ran from December 16, 1841 to March 10, 1842.  Photography—Once More.  The Subscriber has returned to Bath, and having availed himself of some recent improvements in the Daguerreotype Art, offers to take Miniatures, better, quicker and cheaper than has been done before; and without regard to weather.  His stay will be short.—Please give him a call, at the Eliot House. 

Samuel S. Sullivan is not recorded in other photographic directories.