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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Albert Sands Southworth ca. 1845-50 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Albert Sands Southworth (as classical bust) ca. 1845-50 daguerreotype (hand-colored) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Fascinated by François Gouraud's demonstrations in Boston of Daguerre's new invention, Albert Southworth, a pharmacist in Cabotville, Massachusetts went to New York in 1840 to study the technique with Samuel Morse. Within a year he had opened a daguerreotype studio in Boston with Morse's assistant, Joseph Pennell, who had been Southworth's roommate in preparatory school. When Pennell left the firm in 1843, Josiah Johnson Hawes took his place, and the celebrated nineteen-year partnership of Southworth & Hawes was born. The firm was known around the world for its aesthetic accomplishments and technical finesse."
"The artistic ambitions of Southworth & Hawes are clearly demonstrated in the eccentric half-plate daguerreotype [directly above] of Southworth in the guise of a classical bust. Although in all probability a self-portrait, there has been some speculation that it may have been made by Hawes [directly below] who devised a popular vignetting technique. The hand coloring was probably applied by Southworth's sister, Nancy [also below] who joined the firm in 1841 and married Hawes in 1849. "
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Josiah Johnson Hawes ca. 1850 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Nancy Southworth Hawes ca. 1850 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Lemuel Shaw ca. 1850 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"The Boston partnership of Southworth & Hawes produced the finest portrait daguerreotypes in America for a clientele that included leading political, intellectual, and artistic figures. This first photographic process, invented by Louis Daguerre (1787-1851) spread rapidly around the world after its public presentation in Paris in 1839. Exposed in a camera obscura and developed in mercury vapors, each highly polished silvered copper plate is a unique photograph that, viewed in proper light, exhibits extraordinary detail and three-dimensionality. Lemuel Shaw's imposing presence, sculpted by intense sunlight, is a startling departure from the conventional posed portrait, customarily set in a studio and lit indirectly."
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Rufus Choate ca. 1850 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Rufus Choate (1799-1859), one of America's most capable lawyers and statesmen, served in both the state and federal government and was known for his classical orations. It is not surprising that Southworth & Hawes, whose studio adjoined Choate's law office, asked him to pose. Only after repeated requests from the photographers, who promised the sitting would take only fifteen minutes, did the busy lawyer agree. On the appointed day, Choate posed four or five times with the appropriate props – a law book and a bust of an orator – before rushing back to his client-filled office. Choate's famous wild locks, disheveled clothing and haggard features are recorded in this faithful portrait of an overworked man who frequently suffered from debilitating headaches yet was driven by a prodigious nervous energy and an intense love of his profession."
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| Southworth & Hawes Sculpture Gallery, Boston Athenaeum ca. 1855 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"At center is a plaster cast of Diana of Versailles, famed since the sixteenth century as a touchstone of Roman sculpture. Around it, in one of the earliest permanent displays of sculpture in America, are a cast of Houdon's bust of Washington, and another, possibly of Franklin – in sum, a declaration of Boston's claim to be the "Athens of America." Like the casts themselves, Southworth & Hawes's daguerreotypes aspired to be faithful copies of reality – in their words, a "transformation of shadows into substance."
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Harriet Beecher Stowe ca. 1852 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ca. 1850 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Francis Parkman ca. 1850 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of woman in lace collar and shawl ca. 1850 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of woman in black taffeta dress and lace shawl ca. 1850 daguerreotype (hand-colored) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of James Thomas Fields 1861 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Southworth & Hawes Portrait of Lola Montez ca. 1850 daguerreotype Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Lola Montez (1818-1861), born in Ireland as Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, was a strikingly beautiful adventuress and "Spanish" dancer who achieved international notoriety as the mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria."
– texts based on curator's notes at the Metropolitan Museum