Wonderful portraits, 1850s towns, landscapes; full text plus 104 photos. Enlarged edition.

Newhall discusses the initial introduction of the daguerreotype in America in 1839, the beginnings of the daguerreotype industry, the entrepreneurs and innovators, the incredible Broadway daguerreotype galleries, the explorers, the quest for a color process, and more. In America, Daguerre's initial technique became greatly modified; the new process that evolved is described in detail in a special chapter. Originally published in 1961, this third edition contains all of the original text and illustrations plus sixteen additional pages of plates, corrections, and minor text revisions.

"This book describes the cultural, commercial, and social aspects of the daguerreotype, including the fascinating story of the daguereotypists, their methods, their studios, and their subjects"--Cover.

Essays by Brian Wallis, Grant Romer, Alan Trachtenberg, Wendy Wick Reaves and Sally Pierce.