Ambrotype of Portrait of William Howard Smith

Date1858-1862 (probably)

Photographer D. B. Spooner & Co.

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Springfield

MediumPhotographic negative image on glass set in a leather-covered wooden case edged with dark blue velvet, the case having a brass foil mat and brass hooks.

DimensionsEncased: 4 3/4 x 3 11/16 x 7/16" (12.1 x 9.4 x 1.1 cm.)

Credit LineGift of Mark T. Fowler in memory of William Smith Fowler

Object number1990.510.1

DescriptionAn ambrotype of AARFAC's portrait of William Howard Smith (acc. no. 41.100.8; a full-length likeness of a standing boy with a book in his raised proper R arm, which was painted by Joseph Whiting Stock {1815-1855} in 1838). The photographic image seems to show the painting unframed; the spandrels of the ambrotype case's brass foil mat obscure the corners of the painting. The lower portions of the photograhic image are not quite as sharply focused as the upper ones.
Label TextThe advent of photography provided more than new, direct means of recording the appearances of people. It was also embraced as a practical way of duplicating earlier, painted portraits so that they could be shared with friends and relatives.
Daguerreotyping was the first photographic process to be practiced in America, but by 1857, the alternate process of ambrotyping (recording photographic images on glass) was widely practiced. This ambrotype shows an oil portrait of William Howard Smith that was painted in 1838 by Joseph Whiting Stock (1815-1855); the painting is also owned by the museum (acc. no. 1941.100.8).
in an interesting, interrelated turn of events, Stock briefly partnered with O. H. Cooley to form a photographic business in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the 1840s, leaving the enterprise to Cooley alone about 1847. In 1855 or 1856, Cooley sold the business to the Spooner brothers (D. B., H. B., and J. C.). The latter two brothers soon left the business, but D. B. maintained it (and headed the firm that eventually created this photograph of the Stock oil painting).
MarkingsImpressed in the brass foil at the top of the case is "D. B. Spooner & Co."
Provenance1990.510.1 and 1990.510.2 apparently descended together. For known details regarding the family history of the pair, see Mark T. Fowler to AARFAC, Nov. 4, 1990, and information submitted by Fowler in October 1990 in object file 1941.100.8 and 1941.100.9.
The line of descent seems to have been: from the subject of the painting to his daughter, Mrs. Norman N. Fowler (Minnie Lee Smith)(1859-1940); to her husband, Norman N. Fowler (1857-1940); to his grandson, Mark T. Fowler, who was AARFAM's donor.