James B. Beach of Litchfield, Connecticut
Augustus Washington, American, 1820/21 - 1875
before 1853
Sixth plate Daguerreotype
Overall: 3 11/16 × 3 3/16 × 7/16 in. (9.3 × 8.1 × 1.1 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Katharine T. and Merrill G. Beede 1929 Fund and a gift in memory of Angus Russell, Class of 1952, and in honor of his classmates
2013.64.1
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
19th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Label
This daguerreotype was taken in the Hartford, Connecticut, studio of Augustus Washington, the son of a former slave from Virginia. Washington overcame formidable financial and social obstacles to enroll in Dartmouth College briefly in 1843 and 1844. Because of mounting debts, he left the College prematurely and went on to became an accomplished daguerreotypist during a period in which the relatively new process dominated photographic portraiture. Convinced that newly established Liberia was “the only land in which we [as African Americans] can feel ourselves truly free,” he emigrated there in 1853 and became one of the young nation’s leading citizens.
Washington’s sitter, James B. Beach, is dressed and posed to impress. Adorned with top hat and silk cravat, he looks assuredly at the camera and holds his hand toward his chest in a quasi-Napoleonic stance—a gesture associated with ease. Might he have presented himself thus with the thought of giving this daguerreotype as a keepsake for Virginia Wheeler, whom he married in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1851? According to an 1860 census, Beach was a clockmaker in Derby, Connecticut. He died three years later, shortly after having been wounded in the Civil War battle of LaFourche Crossing, Louisiana.
From the 2019 exhibition American Art, Colonial to Modern, curated by Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art
Course History
ARTH 41.04, European Art 1850-1900, Allan Doyle, Spring 2019
ARTH 41.04, European Art 1850-1900, Allan Doyle, Spring 2019
ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020
HIST 7.32, Civil War Photographs, Robert Bonner, Winter 2022
Exhibition History
American Art, Colonial to Modern, Israel Sack Gallery and Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26-July 21, 2019.
Publication History
John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 119, ill. plate no. 50.
Provenance
Greg French Early Photography, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts; sold to present collection, 2013.
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