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Daguerreotype Miniatures
John A. Whipple
96 Washington St.
 
Mr. Whipple stands among the foremost of living Daguerreotype Artists. He receives the patronage of the most distinguished citizens in our community, having established his reputation for accuracy, neatness and vividness of Daguerreotype Portraiture. A visit to his rooms at 96 Washington Street, will satisfy any one as to the amount of his business, as well as to the class of his patrons. He excels particularly in taking groups, and those who visited the last exhibition of the Mechanics' Fair, will remember well those rare specimens in this way, that were executed at the rooms of Mr. Whipple.
 
Mr. Whipple has a copy of a picture taken by him of the Governor and Council. It embellishes his studio and attracts the admiration of all who visit it. He has much of the patronage of the three learned professions from all parts of New England, and many families are indebted to his unsurpassable skill for the most choice and natural pictures of themselves, joined in a domestic circle. The happy effect of assemblies thus naturally pictured forth, it is impossible to describe. And such memorials are assuredly invaluable, growing more and more so, as absence, or death, or tune, alters or diminishes the domestic circle. We commend the practice of having such pictures taken. How many there are who would pay fifty times the usual price of such pictures, could they but obtain the full likeness of their families, now scattered or thinned by death.
 
In all the branches of the Daguerreotype profession, Mr. Whipple is prominently distinguished. He performs all that is possible in the art, and his terms are very moderate.

In the Daguerrean Rooms of Mr. J. V. R. Schuyler, we recently noticed many familiar and well known features true types of the originals- His rooms are large and airy, well furnished, and decorated with splendid pictures Having both sky and side-lights, and all other facilities known to be favorable, to the art, we do not wonder at his furnishing daguerreotypes shadowing forth the smile of beauty and the glance of manhood's " living fire." Mr. Schuyler is an accomplished artist. He keeps a rich assortment of stock, among which may be seen some beautiful pearl cases, fit to hold within their embrace the portrait of the fairest and loveliest in the land
 
His gallery is well supported, and the affable and courteous proprietor is realizing a handsome compensation for his labor and time. He has had much experience in his profession, and his natural taste and skill will doubtless continue to render his gallery as popular as his pictures are strikingly perfect.
 
The value of a perfect likeness should not be estimated by dollars and cents. Our father, mother, brother and sister those have all, all departed. What would we not give for a type which would recall every feature of the lost and loved. There sits the mother mourning over the loss of her only child- it was a beautiful little gem of lovelines. But it is now cold; and inanimate. The pulse has ceased to beat, the eyes are closed forever, the lips, though slightly parted, will never again move in uttering words of childish simplicity. There is the marble brow and flaxen Hair, but that brow has been touched by death, and made livid, cold; and that glossy hair will no more hang in tasteful ringlets about that neck of alabaster. The little child is dead. O, what treasure would purchase of the mother the last, the only daguerreotype of her loved, lost-child ? She would not part with it for crowns or golden gems.

Root's Daguerrean Gallery. There is no place like this in New York for perfect daguerreotypes. Here is displayed a multitude of the most beautiful speeimens of this art, showing the perfection of Mr. Root's mode of taking them. This gentleman has placed in the Crystal Palace some forty or fifty pieces, which attract great attention, and will probably secure the first prize. Any one who has seen them cannot but admire the sharpness of the figure, the perfection of the drapery, and especially the remarkably clear and natural expression of the eye one of the most difficult attainments in this art. No higher testimony can be given to the exellence of Mr. Root's daguerreotypes than the constant press of business on his hands, his rooms being thronged every day with visitors. He succeeds admirably in taking the likenesses of children. And what mother would not love to preserve the infant features of her children to look upon in after years, especially should they be taken away by death. We have rarely seen a more beautiful illustration of this than in the following:
 
Sweet child, that angel face must fade,
   As years shall come and go.
For time doth ever mar the fair
   And bright of all below.
But thy fond mother's jealous care
   Hath robbed the yawning tomb,
And by the might of art, hath fixed
   For e'er thy youthful bloom.
Within her sacred shrine there hangs
   In all its infant grace,
On Root's unequaled, perfect plate,
   Her darling's glorious face.
Then, mother of the blooming child,
   Trust not the fleeting hours,
But, as this mother did by hers,
   Do thou at once by yours.
Then, should the sudden dart of death
   Your loved one call away,
You'd bless the hint by which you had
   The picture done to day,
   By Root, 363 Broadway.

Mr. Healy is painting a portrait from the daguerreotype; I have not seen it, but it is thought to be very good. I have been meditating upon something which I wish should be thought of. Edward was ten years old when I made the Hayne speech in the Senate. Why should not Mr. Healy make a picture of him, as of that age, from the daguerreotype, and from Miss Goodrich's little miniature, and place him at my feet? He was then no older than Daniel is now.
...
 
See Julia, and tell her what I propose about Edward's picture.

alan@luminous-lint.com