African American Connecticut Explored

25 Augustus Washington: “Portrait of a Young Man”

174 Charles Edwin Bulkeley, a good-looking young man fashionably dressed in mid-nineteenth-century clothes, stares straight at the viewer. He is seated stiffly and a little awkwardly, his right hand resting on the arm of his chair. The brass mat surrounding his portrait is stamped to indicate that it is the work of “A. Washington, 136 Main St. Hartford, Ct.” The African-American daguerreotypist Augustus Washington opened his Hartford studio in 1846, barely seven years after the Frenchman Jacques-Louis Daguerre announced his invention to the world. His process, which used light-sensitive chemicals to capture an image on a silver-coated copper plate, seemed almost miraculous at the time. The silvered surface of the daguerreotype plate was like a little mirror. It was as if the daguerreotype somehow was able to capture the reflection in the mirror and make it permanent. Suddenly daguerreotype studios were everywhere and these exquisitely detailed portraits were readily available. Washington was born in Trenton, New Jersey, around 1820. He originally learned the daguerreotype process while a student at Dartmouth College, in hopes of earning enough money to continue his studies there. However, his financial troubles continued, and in 1844 he moved to Hartford to teach at the Colored District School operated by the Rev. James W. C. Pennington at 12 Talcott Street. Two years later he set up a “daguerrean gallery” in the Waverly Building; by May 1847 he had moved to the Kellogg Building at 136 Main Street, across the street from the Wadsworth Atheneum. Although he was not Hartford’s first daguerreotypist, he was one of the most successful. His prices ranged from fifty cents to ten dollars , and his patrons included some of Hartford’s most prominent citizens. Many of the earliest daguerreotype studios lasted no more than a few months, but Washington remained in business until 1853, when he and his family left to join the African American colony in Liberia. Nancy Finlay 25 Augustus Washington “Portrait of a Young Man” Augustus Washington / N. Finlay 175 Charles Edwin Bulkeley was the son of Aetna founder Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley and his wife Lydia, and an example of the type of customer Washington attracted. In 1852, when this portrait was made, Charles was sixteen years old and about to enter Yale College. He could have walked from his family’s home at 38 Church Street to Washington’s studio in just a few minutes. There he would have climbed the stairs to the top floor, where skylights provided the ample light required for the long exposures, usually about twenty seconds. Charles’s rather rigid pose and solemn expression are figure 25-1 Broadside for the Washington Daguerrean Gallery, Washington & Co., 1851. The Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut This image has been redacted from the digital edition. Please refer to the print edition to see the image. 176 1789 to Civil War explained by the fact that he had to hold absolutely still for almost half a minute. That is why his hand is supported by the arm of the chair; his head would also have been supported by a head rest. Many people complained about the need to remain motionless for so long, and occasionally a daguerreotype survives in which the sitter is partially blurred because he or she moved. Washington not only arranged Charles’s pose and exposed the plate in a large, rather crude camera, he also developed the daguerreotype , sealed it in an airtight package with a glass cover sheet, and mounted it in a leather-covered case with a brass mat surrounding the portrait. Having Washington’s name and address stamped on the mat or embossed on the cover of the case makes his products unusual ; most daguerreotypists did not sign their work so prominently. His parents must have liked Charles’s portrait, as a year or two later Washington made their portraits also. Their daguerreotypes, in contrast to Charles’s, are mounted in silver-bordered cases, the most expensive and elegant type of case. All these early daguerreotype portraits were treated as precious objects. As with painted miniatures , each daguerreotype was unique: There was no negative, and the only way to get a copy was to take another daguerreotype—or later a photograph—of the portrait. Augustus Washington continued to take daguerreotypes for a short time after emigrating to Liberia in 1853, but agriculture and trading soon proved more lucrative sources of income. He...