Southworth & Hawes
Encyclopedia
Southworth & Hawes was an early photographic firm in Boston
, 1843-1863. Its partners, Albert Sands Southworth
(1811–1894) and Josiah Johnson Hawes
(1808–1901), have been hailed as the first great American masters of photography, whose work elevated photographic portraits to the level of fine art. Their images are prominent in every major book and collection of early American photography.
Southworth & Hawes worked almost exclusively in the daguerreotype
process. Working with large 8x6-inch plate sizes, their images are brilliant, mirror-like, and finely detailed. Writing in the Photographic and Fine Art Journal, August 1855, the contemporary Philadelphia daguerreotypist Marcus A. Root paid them this praise: "Their style, indeed, is peculiar to themselves; presenting beautiful effects of light and shade, and giving depth and roundness together with a wonderful softness or mellowness. These traits have achieved for them a high reputation with all true artists and connoisseurs." He further noted that the firm had devoted their time chiefly to daguerreotypes, with little attention to photography on paper.
, Lyman Beecher
, Benjamin Butler
, William Ellery Channing
, Rufus Choate
, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Charlotte Cushman, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
, Dorothea Dix
, Ralph Waldo Emerson
, Edward Everett
, William Lloyd Garrison
, Grace Greenwood
, Oliver Wendell Holmes
, Sam Houston
, Thomas Starr King
, Louis Kossuth, Jenny Lind
, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
, Horace Mann
, Donald McKay
, Lola Montez
, George Peabody
, William H. Prescott
, Lemuel Shaw
, Harriet Beecher Stowe
, Charles Sumner
, Daniel Webster
, John Greenleaf Whittier
, and Robert C. Winthrop.
Documenting the birth of surgical anesthesia
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On the evening of September 30, 1846, Mr. Eben Frost, suffering from a violent toothache, called upon Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a dentist at No. 19 Tremont Row
, Boston. Dr. Morton administered nitrous oxide
and extracted the tooth. Less than three weeks later, the so-called "Death of Pain" took place on October 16, when Dr. Morton administered ether to a patient before Dr. John Collins Warren
, senior surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital
, removed a tumor from his neck. Although it is believed that ether anesthesia had been administered for surgery early, most notably by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson Georgia on March 30, 1843, it had been done privately and not reported in the medical literature. Morton's public demonstration of general anesthesia was therefore historic. To commemorate this momentous event, Southworth & Hawes were asked to daguerreotype the operation; however Hawes was squeamish about the blood, and they photographed a re-enactment instead. On April 3, 1847, Southworth & Hawes were called upon to record an actual operation, again with the patient under ether. Later Dr. Warren presented his Laundy scalpel and probe, the surgical instruments he used in the first operation, to Hawes in gratitude for recording the operations.
(Three or four weeks later, they documented Dr. Warren yet again. In honor of his ether discovery, and of his distinguished career as professor of anatomy at Harvard Medical School
, they arranged and composed a mock anatomy dissection, with the principal subject being Dr. Warren himself.)
. Most made their way into three museums (George Eastman House
, Metropolitan Museum of Art
and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
), while only a comparatively few have ever been privately held. However, on April 27, 1999, a previously-unknown hoard of 240 Southworth & Hawes daguerreotypes appeared at Sotheby's
auction from the estate of David Feigenbaum. The total sales price realized was $3.3 million dollars.
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, 1843-1863. Its partners, Albert Sands Southworth
Albert Southworth
thumb|Albert Southworth, circa 1848Albert Sands Southworth operated Southworth & Hawes daguerreotype studio with Josiah Johnson Hawes from 1843 to 1863.-Biography:...
(1811–1894) and Josiah Johnson Hawes
Josiah Johnson Hawes
Josiah Johnson Hawes was a photographer in Boston, Massachusetts. He and Albert Southworth established the photography studio of Southworth & Hawes, which produced numerous portraits of exceptional quality in the 1840s-1860s.-Biography:...
(1808–1901), have been hailed as the first great American masters of photography, whose work elevated photographic portraits to the level of fine art. Their images are prominent in every major book and collection of early American photography.
Southworth & Hawes worked almost exclusively in the daguerreotype
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
process. Working with large 8x6-inch plate sizes, their images are brilliant, mirror-like, and finely detailed. Writing in the Photographic and Fine Art Journal, August 1855, the contemporary Philadelphia daguerreotypist Marcus A. Root paid them this praise: "Their style, indeed, is peculiar to themselves; presenting beautiful effects of light and shade, and giving depth and roundness together with a wonderful softness or mellowness. These traits have achieved for them a high reputation with all true artists and connoisseurs." He further noted that the firm had devoted their time chiefly to daguerreotypes, with little attention to photography on paper.
Personal and public portraits
During their 20 years of collaboration, Southworth & Hawes catered to Boston society and the famous. Their advertisements drew a distinction between the appropriate styles for personal versus public portraiture. "A likeness for an intimate acquaintance or one’s own family should be marked by that amiability and cheerfulness, so appropriate to the social circle and the home fireside. Those for the public, of official dignitaries and celebrated characters admit of more firmness, sternness and soberness." Among their sitters were Louisa May AlcottLouisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
, Lyman Beecher
Lyman Beecher
Lyman Beecher was a Presbyterian minister, American Temperance Society co-founder and leader, and the father of 13 children, many of whom were noted leaders, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Catharine Beecher, and Thomas...
, Benjamin Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)
Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....
, William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing
Dr. William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker...
, Rufus Choate
Rufus Choate
Rufus Choate , American lawyer and orator, was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a descendant of an English family which settled in Massachusetts in 1643. His first cousin, physician George Choate, was the father of George C. S. Choate and Joseph Hodges Choate...
, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Charlotte Cushman, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family who gained renown as the author of the American classic, the memoir Two Years Before the Mast...
, Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Lynde Dix was an American activist on behalf of the indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums...
, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, Edward Everett
Edward Everett
Edward Everett was an American politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett, a Whig, served as U.S. Representative, and U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State...
, William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
, Grace Greenwood
Sara Jane Lippincott
Sara Jane Lippincott was better known by the pseudonym Grace Greenwood. She was an American author, poet and lecturer. One of the first women to gain access into the Congressional press galleries, she used her questions to advocate for social reform and women's rights.-Biography:thumb|left|Sara...
, Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat...
, Sam Houston
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...
, Thomas Starr King
Thomas Starr King
Thomas Starr King was an American Unitarian and Universalist minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War. Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic...
, Louis Kossuth, Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
, Horace Mann
Horace Mann
Horace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834 to 1837. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education since its creation, he was...
, Donald McKay
Donald McKay
Donald McKay was a Canadian-born American designer and builder of sailing ships.He was born in Jordan Falls, Shelburne County on Nova Scotia's South Shore. In 1826 he moved to New York, working for shipbuilders Brown & Bell and Isaac Webb...
, Lola Montez
Lola Montez
Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld , better known by the stage name Lola Montez, was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a "Spanish dancer", courtesan and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Countess of Landsfeld. She used her influence to institute liberal...
, George Peabody
George Peabody
George Peabody was an American-British entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Peabody Trust in Britain and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and was responsible for many other charitable initiatives.-Biography:...
, William H. Prescott
William H. Prescott
William Hickling Prescott was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian...
, Lemuel Shaw
Lemuel Shaw
Lemuel Shaw was an American jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court...
, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
, Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
, Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...
, John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets...
, and Robert C. Winthrop.
Documenting the birth of surgical anesthesiaAnesthesiaAnesthesia, or anaesthesia , traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away...
Tremont Row
Tremont Row in Boston, Massachusetts, was a short street that flourished in the 19th and early-20th centuries. It was located near the intersection of Court, Tremont, and Cambridge streets, in today's Government Center area. It existed until the 1920s, when it became known as Scollay Square...
, Boston. Dr. Morton administered nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air, is a chemical compound with the formula . It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic...
and extracted the tooth. Less than three weeks later, the so-called "Death of Pain" took place on October 16, when Dr. Morton administered ether to a patient before Dr. John Collins Warren
John Collins Warren
John Collins Warren , of Boston, was one of the most renowned American surgeons of the 19th century. In 1846 he gave permission to William T.G. Morton to provide ether anesthesia while Warren performed a minor surgical procedure...
, senior surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...
, removed a tumor from his neck. Although it is believed that ether anesthesia had been administered for surgery early, most notably by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson Georgia on March 30, 1843, it had been done privately and not reported in the medical literature. Morton's public demonstration of general anesthesia was therefore historic. To commemorate this momentous event, Southworth & Hawes were asked to daguerreotype the operation; however Hawes was squeamish about the blood, and they photographed a re-enactment instead. On April 3, 1847, Southworth & Hawes were called upon to record an actual operation, again with the patient under ether. Later Dr. Warren presented his Laundy scalpel and probe, the surgical instruments he used in the first operation, to Hawes in gratitude for recording the operations.
(Three or four weeks later, they documented Dr. Warren yet again. In honor of his ether discovery, and of his distinguished career as professor of anatomy at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
, they arranged and composed a mock anatomy dissection, with the principal subject being Dr. Warren himself.)
Dispersion of the archives
Hawes lived until 1901, continuing to operate a studio and carefully protecting its sizeable archive. The archives were finally dispersed during the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Most made their way into three museums (George Eastman House
George Eastman House
The George Eastman House is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and...
, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
), while only a comparatively few have ever been privately held. However, on April 27, 1999, a previously-unknown hoard of 240 Southworth & Hawes daguerreotypes appeared at Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
auction from the estate of David Feigenbaum. The total sales price realized was $3.3 million dollars.
Portrait subjects
- Alvin Adams
- Brooks Adams
- John Quincy Adams
- Marietta Alboni
- Stephen Allen
- Susan B. Anthony
- Nathan Appleton
- William Appleton
- D.C. Bacon
- Ellen B. Bacon
- Nathan Prentiss Banks
- Gaetano Bedini
- Henry Ward Beecher
- Lyman Beecher
- Elise Biscaccianti
- George Sewall Boutwell
- Henry I. Bowdich
- Laura Dewey Bridgman
- George Nixon Briggs
- Louise Winsor Brooks
- Samuel Gilman Brown
- Elizabeth Dwight Cabot
- Edward Tyrrel Channing
- Seth Wells CheneySeth Wells CheneySeth Wells Cheney , American artist, a pioneer of crayon work in the United States.-Biography:He was the son of George Cheney and Electa Woodbridge. He received a public school education...
- Jonas ChickeringJonas ChickeringJonas Chickering was a piano manufacturer in Boston, Massachusetts.Jonas Chickering was born in Mason Village, and raised in nearby New Ipswich, New Hampshire where his father Abner Chickering kept a farm and worked as a blacksmith...
- Francis James Child
- Thomas Childs
- James Freeman Clarke
- Cassius Marcellus Clay
- Henry Clay
- C.W. Couldock
- Henry Clifford Curtis
- Charlotte Cushman
- Henry Dexter
- Dorothea Dix
- John Dixwell
- Mrs. F.N. Drew
- Rufus Ellis
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Edward Everett
- Cornelia Conway Felton
- Annie Adams FieldsAnnie Adams FieldsAnnie Adams Fields was a United States writer.- 1834 -1881 :Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she was the second wife of the publisher and author James Thomas Fields, whom she married in 1854, and with whom she encouraged up and coming writers such as Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Freeman, and Emma Lazarus...
- James Thomas FieldsJames Thomas FieldsJames Thomas Fields was an American publisher, editor, and poet.-Early life and family:He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 31, 1817 and named James Field; the family later added the "s". His father was a sea captain and died before Fields was three...
- Millard Fillmore
- John Fiske
- Benjamin F. French
- William Frick
- Margaret Fuller
- William Lloyd Garrison
- Mary Gleason
- Otto Goldschmidt
- Charles GoodyearCharles GoodyearCharles Goodyear was an American inventor who developed a process to vulcanize rubber in 1839 -- a method that he perfected while living and working in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1844, and for which he received patent number 3633 from the United States Patent Office on June 15, 1844Although...
- Augustus Addison GouldAugustus Addison GouldAugustus Addison Gould was an American conchologist and malacologist.-Biography:...
- Mary Apthorp Quincy Gould
- Simon Greenleaf
- Grace Greenwood
- Matilda Hays
- James Shuttleworth Haywood
- George Peter Alexander Healy
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
- Mary Wood Hooper
- Erastus Hopkins
- Elias Howe
- James Jackson (1777–1867)
- William Jenks
- Gerrit P. Judd
- Kamehameha IV i.e. Prince Lot Kapuiwa (1830–1872)
- Kamehameha V i.e. Prince Alexander Liholiho Iolani (1834–1863)
- Sarah P. Keyes
- Joseph Kimball
- Thomas Starr King
- Edward Norris Kirk
- Louis Kossuth
- Amos LawrenceAmos LawrenceAmos Lawrence, was an American merchant and philanthropist.-Biography:...
- Jenny Lind
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- James Jackson Lowell
- John S. Lurman
- Alice Lyman
- Cornelia F. Malchett
- Theodore Malchett
- Horace Mann
- Donald McKay
- Mary Minot
- Sarah Cabot Minot
- Lola Montez
- Fannie Morey
- Commodore Charles Morris
- Rollin Heber Neale
- Edwards Amasa Park
- Francis Parkman
- John Howard Payne
- Frank Everett Peabody
- George Peabody
- Benjamin Peirce
- Wendell Phillips
- Franklin Pierce
- Mrs. G.W. Pratt
- William Gardner Prescott
- William Hickling Prescott
- Ferencz Pulszky
- Charles Francis Richardson
- Baron James Rothschild
- Truman Henry Safford
- Leverett Saltonstall
- Benjamin Seaver
- Daniel Sharp
- Lemuel Shaw
- A.L. Simpson
- William T. Smithett
- Jared SparksJared SparksJared Sparks was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard University from 1849 to 1853.-Biography:...
- Charles Sprague
- Calvin Ellis Stowe
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Charles Sumner
- Caroline Sturgis Tappan
- Zachary Taylor
- George Thompson
- Edward S. Tobey
- Elisabeth Sprague Tobey
- John L. Tucker
- Katherine Parker Tucker
- Ellen Dwight Twisleton
- Bennet Tyler
- Adrian Vandeveer
- Captain Jonathan Walker
- James Lester Wallack
- John Collins Warren
- William Warren
- Daniel Webster
- Benjamin F. White
- Robert Charles Winthrop
- John Ellis Wool
- Jeffries Wyman
Museums with Southworth & Hawes collections
- American Museum of Photography
- Amon Carter MuseumAmon Carter MuseumThe Amon Carter Museum of American Art is located in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established by Amon G. Carter to house his collection of paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. Carter’s will provided a museum in Fort Worth devoted to American art.When the museum opened...
of Ft. Worth, Texas - Boston AthenæumBoston AthenæumBoston Athenæum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of only sixteen extant membership libraries, meaning that patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use the Athenæum's services...
- George Eastman HouseGeorge Eastman HouseThe George Eastman House is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and...
- Historic New EnglandHistoric New EnglandHistoric New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities , is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England and is the oldest and largest regional preservation...
- Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
- Museum of Fine Arts, BostonMuseum of Fine Arts, BostonThe Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
External links
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/sets/72157606223836462/ Works by Southworth & Hawes, from the George Eastman House
- http://museum.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/southworth_hawes/pages/intro.html Exhibition at the International Center of Photography, 2005
- http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/hi_southworthalbertsands.htm Works in the Metropolitan Museum
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, works by Southworth & Hawes