Cleveland Museum of Art

Senator George Ellis Pugh of Ohio

Whitehurst Studio

Date

c.1857

Medium

salted paper print from wet collodion negative

Culture

America

Department

Photography

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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.

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