Realism and Illusion in a Sacred Landscape Southworth & Hawes , Daguerreotypists
A Treasured Source of Inspiration
Realism and Illusion in a Sacred Landscape Southworth & Hawes , Daguerreotypists
By Melissa Banta ,
Program Officer for Photographs at Harvard University Library , Weissman Preservation Center ; Historical Collections Consultant at Mount Auburn
Mount Auburn Cemetery ’ s beloved landscape has inspired photographers since the introduction of the medium in the mid-19th century . In 1853 , two pioneering practitioners of the art , Josiah Johnson Hawes ( 1808-1901 ) and Albert Sands Southworth ( 1811-1894 ), known for their magnificent portraits of Boston ’ s illustrious citizens , ventured outside their studio to create a series of daguerreotypes of Mount Auburn .
The first publicly announced photographic technique , the daguerreotype realized a centuries-old dream of fixing the reflection of a natural scene onto a surface . The wondrous process involved treating a silver-coated copper plate with light-sensitive chemicals , exposing it in a camera , and developing the plate with mercury vapor . The resulting picture — a single , unique plate — was sometimes referred to as a “ mirror image ” for its smooth reflective appearance , exquisite tonal range , and faithful rendering of the most minute detail .
The daguerreotypes taken by the Southworth and Hawes studio document the Cemetery as it looked 20 years after its founding in 1831 and include a number of scenes of favorite vistas and noted monuments . 1 ( These scenes were often represented as engravings in contemporary guidebooks of the day , such as Dearborn ’ s Guide Through Mount Auburn .) The studio ’ s images reveal how Southworth and Hawes experimented with elements of radiance and darkness . Their daguerreotype of the Winchester family lot , for example , captures the sunlight streaming through the trees and the dappled light and shadow on the lovely hillside tomb . “ As far as possible we imitate nature in her most beautiful forms , by a mellow blending of lights and shades ,” Southworth explained . 2 In their daguerreotype of the Lawrence family lot , the photographers bathe the scene in a subdued glow that evokes the otherworldly nature of the landscape .
Southworth and Hawes produced a number of daguerreotypes of the Cemetery as stereo views , a new development that allowed the photographers to push the boundaries of the medium to a seemingly miraculous form of realism . 3 The studio designed an apparatus called the “ Grand Parlor and Gallery Stereoscope ,” which housed a series of daguerreotype stereo pairs that when seen together , created a three-dimensional view . Southworth noted that the daguerreotype had surpassed engraving and painting in “ faithful and life-like delineation ,” and now along with the stereoscope , would “ invade the precinct of sculpture .” 4 The richly intricate and muti-layered landscape of Mount Auburn presented the ideal setting for their stereo images .
Southworth and Hawes issued tickets to their Gallery Stereoscope ( 25 cents for a single view and 50 cents for the season ) to individuals working at various cultural institutions , including Mount Auburn Cemetery . Photograph historian Grant Romer explains that the studio ’ s foray into stereography also presented an opportunity to generate business from the city ’ s elite — many of whom , such as the eminent doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes , had family lots in the Cemetery . 5 Holmes ,
6 | Sweet Auburn
whom Southworth and Hawes photographed many times , described stereo views as providing “ the same sense of infinite complexity which Nature gives us .” 6 ( The doctor himself would eventually invent an improved stereo viewer .) One can imagine that the studio ’ s magnificent cemetery scenes would have intrigued Holmes as well as another photograph and technology enthusiast , Jacob Bigelow . A physician as well as a founder and designer of Mount Auburn , Bigelow mused about the “ beautiful perfection ” of the daguerreotype “ by which the external picture is depicted in miniature , light for light , and shade for shade , to the minutest gradation of each .” 7
While the studio valued the fidelity of the medium , Southworth also contended that the , “ artist , even in photography , must go beyond discovery and the knowledge of facts .... Nature is not at all to be represented as it is , but as it ought to be , and might have possibly been .” 8 Having earned a reputation as among the most celebrated artistic photographic innovators of their day , Southworth and Hawes created a magical blend of realism and illusion as they set about capturing the sacred landscape of the young Cemetery .
1
Daguerreotypes of Mount Auburn by Southworth and Hawes currently reside at the George Eastman House , the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center , the University of New Mexico , and in private collections . The studio ’ s daguerreotypes of the Cemetery include views of the Binney monument , Central Avenue , Cushing tomb , Davenport lot , Forest Pond , Gentian Path , Lawrence lot , Magoun monument , Mead and Read tombs , Shaw monument , Story monument , Tisdale-Hewins lots , Torrey monument , Walcott- Frothingham lots , and Winchester tomb .
2
“ Artists ’ Daguerreotype Rooms ,” Massachusetts Register for the Year 1853 Containing a Business Directory of the State , with a Variety of Useful Information ( Boston : George Adams , 1853 ), 326 .
3
The British scientist Charles Wheatstone introduced the idea of binocular vision in the 1830s , and the technique was later applied to photography .
4
Albert Sands Southworth , “ Daguerreotype Likeness No . IV ,” Boston Daily Evening Transcript , 7 May 1852 , 1 in Grant Romer , “‘ A High Reputation with All True Artists and Connoisseurs ’: The Daguerreian Careers of A . S . Southworth and J . J . Hawes ,” in Young America : The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes , eds . Grant Romer and Brian Wallis ( Rochester and New York : George Eastman House and International Center of Photography , 2005 ), 37 .