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Henry Fitz, Jr.
Self-Portrait with Eyes Closed
1939, November - 1840, January
Daguerreotype, 1/9 plate
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
LL/33083
In October 1839, Wolcott and Johnson built a miniature camera (4 x 2 inches) that utilized a concave mirror instead of a lens to focus the light. Johnson sat for five minutes in full sunlight to make what he called a profile portrait that was not quite 3/8 inch square. With the assistance of the telescope maker Henry Fitz, Jr., the two built a bigger concave mirror camera and commenced working with 2 x 2 1/2-inch plates. Wolcott patented the camera in 1840. This corpselike self-portrait made by Fitz, with his eyes closed, is believed to be from those first trials.
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