Larry West was a mergers and acquisitions expert when he stumbled upon an article in The New York Post in 1975 that said antique photographs were on the verge of becoming the next major collection. Inspired, she walked into a shop in Mamaroneck, NY and came across a daguerreotype—an early photographic form made on highly polished metal plates whose hologram-like effect was almost astonishing. An African-American man in a tuxedo gracefully posed in front of the camera. West bought it for $10.70.
“Tax included,” he said, laughing in a phone call.
The find initiated the West’s 45-year obsession—some might say obsession— with daguerreotypes as objects of beauty and records of American history, including the active role African Americans have played as both makers and consumers of photography since its first invention.
Now, an important part of his collection, which has never been made public, Smithsonian Museum of American Art (SAAM) An incident in Washington DC Stephanie Stebich, the director of the museum, called the “coup”. The museum said the purchase price It was in the middle of the six digits.
Dating from the 1840s to the mid-1920s, the group of 286 objects includes a cache of 40 daguerreotypes made by three of the most prominent Black photographers of the 19th century, James P. Ball, Glenalvin Goodridge, and Augustus Washington, making SAAMs some of the best in the world. . The museum said it has the largest collection of such work in the country, surpassing the 26 daguerreotypes these photographers have in the Library of Congress.
An extensive collection is included with the purchase. photo jewelry — private objects made to be worn on the body, embedded with small daguerreotypes or other types of photographs, perhaps with tufts of hair. West calls the band made by and for African Americans “the rarest of rarities.”
Portraits of abolitionists and photographs of the Underground Railroad are complemented by a particular focus on women, both black and white, working to raise money for the operation.
“It really allows us to dramatically expand the canvas that most people see when they think of early photography in the United States,” said Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian and former director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History. and Culture.
“What I am very pleased with is not only the representation of female abolitionists, but also the representation of African American photographers who are often underestimated and overlooked,” she said.
The timing was right as SAAM began the re-establishment of its permanent collections over the next few years. Photography curator John Jacob says newly acquired objects will play a central role.
invention daguerreotype process 1839 was big news at the time, and photography studios burgeoning almost throughout the United States offered ordinary people a new way to represent themselves at well below the cost of a painted portrait. Black photographers were at the forefront of this new technology, and wealthy Black people flocked to their studios.
“The transition from miniature painting to photographic portraiture is really the democratization of portraiture,” Jacob said. “But to explore this story, a collection has to have different photographers and the images have to have different subjects – it’s the only way to tell the story of democratization. We couldn’t have told this story before; Now, by bringing Larry’s collection, that’s something that can be done now.”
Names such as Ball, Goodridge, and Washington established prosperous studios serving both Black and white clients. Ball has worked in Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and Helena, Mont., among other places; Goodridge studied with his brothers in York, Penn; and Washington established his studio in Hartford, Conn., before moving to Liberia in 1853.
Harvard Art Museums photography curator Makeda Best said the materials in West’s collection have the potential to deepen and even rewrite the history of early photography in the United States. “It tells us that ordinary African Americans are both consumers and producers of this new media, and they immediately understand its importance,” he said. “We not only created images for ourselves, we also participated in the development of this new technology.”
Best, with the collection reaching a wider audience, changes the geography of photography history. “A lot has happened outside of New York and other major cities,” he said. “This collection shows us once again how little we really know about the diversity of photography practices in the United States during this period.”
The three photographers at the center of the purchase were active abolitionists—perhaps not surprising given how important the photograph played in the movement to end slavery and, as Bunch put it, “oppose the narrative of African Americans as just the poor, a stigma to America’s contribution. to America rather than those found.
Photographer Deborah Willis, widely known African-American photographic historianand an official from SAAM underlined this point in a telephone conversation. “We see beauty, we see fashion,” she said. “We see these multidimensional experiences of black men and women in that time period.”
He added that the photographs broaden our view of the African American experience by depicting the following. “Not just the hardships or ‘pains’ of the Black body, but also stories of Black men and women who were entrepreneurs, had dreams, were motivated by the politics of the time.”
Jacob recounts that it took 45 years for West to collect 40 daguerreotypes by African American photographers, how few such objects survived, and how stubborn the collector was in their search. “When It was much easier when I first started,” West said. “Most of the collectors are old white men,” he said with a laugh. “To be fair, some ladies too.”
While West was working for Avon in the 1970s, he was sidelined and focused his attention on photographs of Abraham Lincoln. He discovered the existence of photographic jewelry after moving to Tiffany and Co. in 1978. After retiring in 2017, he moved from New York City to Washington DC to “get closer to history.” The era’s focus on African-American photography has intensified over the past two decades.
Part of the purchase includes West’s research materials and his own review of the collection. “This is a treasure for a whole new generation of art historians,” said director Stebich. There are plans to hold a symposium and other opportunities for experts to engage with the collection before the works are made public, possibly in the fall of 2023.
“All collectors and historians have a dream for their collection – will my material be used and will it be permanent?” said West. With the addition of his collection, West says: The Smithsonian “can tell many stories that they couldn’t tell before.”