1321
franchise. They utilized only the best equipment, did
not hire outside journeymen and refused to lower their
prices in the face of stiff competition. They shunned the
conventions of standardized portraiture and sought to
communicate a simple yet resonant representation of
the sitter’s personality:
What is to be done is obliged to be done quickly. The
whole character of the sitter is to be read at fi rst sight;
the whole likeness, as it shall appear when fi nished, is
to be seen at fi rst, in each and all its details, and in their
unity and combinations and in the result there is to be no
departure from truth in the delineation and representation
of beauty, and expression, and character. (Albert Sands
Southworth, “An Address to the National Photographic
Association of the United States,” The Philadelphia Pho-
tographer, 8 (1871): 315–323)
Dissatisfi ed with the meager income he derived from
the studio, Southworth caught the Gold Rush fever and
departed for California in 1849. He spent twenty-two
months prospecting, yet his returns were minimal and
he returned in poor health. The more practical Hawes
stayed in Boston, and the studio continued in business.
Southworth returned in 1851, and began to focus his
attention on the invention and patenting of technical
equipment. In 1853, the fi rm’s “Grand Parlor Stereo-
scope” won a gold medal at the Fair of the Massachusetts
Charitable Mechanics Association. Signifi cantly larger
and more complex than any previous stereoscope, the
device was put on show in the studio and patented in- The fi rst image presented was the Greek statue
Laocoön: admission was 25¢, a season ticket 50¢ and
for those wishing to buy the stereoscope itself, the price
was an enormous $1,160. Commenting on the techni-
cal marvel, To-day magazine found “the illusion and
absolute and the effect of the Laocoön in this stereo-
scope is really fi ner than one often gains in looking at
the statue” (Beaumont Newhall, The Daguerreotype in
America, third revised edition, New York: Dover, 1976
(1961): 46). Further patents followed, most notably
for a “plate-holder for cameras” which many thought
evidenced no signifi cant technological advance over
those currently in use. In 1854, the studio ceased the
production of daguerreotypes and took up the collodion
glass plate process.
SOUTHWORTH, ALBERT SANDS AND HAWES, JOSIAH JOHNSON
Southworth & Hawes. Portrait of a
Young Girl.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
© The J. Paul Getty Museum.