Senator George Ellis Pugh of Ohio

c.1857

attributed to Whitehurst Studio

(American)

Culture

America

Medium

salted paper print from wet collodion negative

Measurements

Image: 31.1 x 23.7 cm (12 1/4 x 9 5/16 in.); Paper: 31.1 x 23.7 cm (12 1/4 x 9 5/16 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.)

Credit Line

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1997.194

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Location

Not on view

Description

Photographing prominent politicians or other celebrities was an effective advertisement for the quality and prestige of a portrait studio. Whitehurst Studio opened in 1849 and soon had galleries in 12 cities, including Cincinnati, producing 30,000 daguerreotypes a year. In 1857 its Washington branch advertised it had photographed the entire Congress. To outflank competition from cheaper operators, Whitehurst, in1854, became a pioneer in America in the production of paper photographs. This is a rare example of an American salted paper print, one of the early paper print processes quickly succeeded by albumen prints. Pugh, a Cincinnati lawyer, represented Ohio in the US Senate from 1855 to 1861.