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Frederick Douglass

Historical black and white photographical portrait of Black man in a suit, gold frame.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • Historical black and white photographical portrait of Black man in a suit, gold frame.

Date:

1847-52

Artist:

Samuel J. Miller
American, 1822–1888

About this artwork

In 1839 Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre announced the perfection of the daguerreotype, a photographic process that employed a silver-coated copperplate sensitive to light. This new artistic process was celebrated for its remarkably sharp detail and praised as a “democratic art” that brought portraiture into reach for the masses. Within a few years, thousands of daguerrean portrait studios had sprung up all over the United States, among them the one that Samuel J. Miller owned in Akron, Ohio. Although most of the likenesses made in commercial studios were formulaic and not very revealing of the subject’s character, this portrait of Frederick Douglass—an escaped slave who had become a lauded speaker, writer, and abolitionist agitator—is a striking exception. Northeastern Ohio was a center of abolitionism prior to the Civil War, and Douglass knew that this picture, one of an astonishing number that he commissioned or posed for, would be seen by ardent supporters of his campaign to end slavery. Douglass was an intelligent manager of his public image and likely guided Miller in projecting his intensity and sheer force of character. As a result, this portrait demonstrates that Douglass truly appeared “majestic in his wrath,” as the nineteenth-century feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton observed.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Samuel J. Miller

Title

Frederick Douglass

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1847–1852

Medium

Daguerreotype

Dimensions

14 × 10.6 cm (5 1/2 × 4 1/8 in., plate); 12.1 × 8.8 cm (4 3/4 × 3 1/2 in., mat opening); 15.2 × 12 × 1.4 cm (6 × 4 3/4 × 1/2 in., plate in closed case); 15.2 × 24 × 2 cm (6 × 9 1/2 × 3/4 in., plate in open case)

Credit Line

Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment

Reference Number

1996.433

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/145681/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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