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Taken from above, we look down into a medical room with men surrounding a patient lying down on a table.

Eight men in dark suits surround and some lean into the table with an unconscious patient who’s dressed in a white gown at the center bottom. He’s wearing ankle socks, hands resting on his stomach, his right leg resting on a pillow. One man on the left has placed both his hands on each leg. Some of the men’s faces a blurred due to movement during the long exposure. Two other men stand back from the group, looking on. On the left there’s a counter with basins, pitchers, and towels; on the right a curtained half wall.　

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1.1979
People
Southworth & Hawes, American (active 1843-1863)
Title
Untitled (Early Operation Using Ether)
Classification
Photographs
Work Type
photograph
Date
1847
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States, Massachusetts, Boston
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/286061

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Whole plate daguerreotype
Technique
Daguerreotype
Dimensions
15 x 20 cm (5 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Joseph Warren, Brookline, MA, loan to the Massachusetts General Hospital Photo, 1942. A paper attached to the verso of the plate notes this provenance.
Massachusetts General Hospital Photo Collection, Boston, MA, loan from Joseph Warren, loan to the Fogg Art Museum, 1979.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Loan from the Massachusetts General Hospital Archives and Special Collections
Object Number
1.1979
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Melissa Banta, A Curious and Ingenious Art: Reflections on Daguerreotypes at Harvard (Iowa City, 2000), p. 56, fig. 34
  • Geneviève Aubert, "From Photography to Cinematography: Recording Movement and Gait in a Neurological Context", Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, Taylor and Francis Group (2002), Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 255-264, repr. as fig. 1 on p. 256
  • Grant Romer and Brian Wallis, ed., Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes, exh. cat., Steidl (New York and Gottingen, Germany, 2005), p. 81, fig. 4; p. 234, cat. no. 1888; p. 474, cat. no. 1888

Exhibition History

  • Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes, International Center of Photography, New York, 06/17/2005 - 09/04/2005; George Eastman Museum, Rochester, 10/01/2005 - 01/08/2006; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, 01/28/2006 - 04/09/2006
  • Re-View: S426A (Large Niche) #1: CB30 Photography and Society & HAA172w American Art and Modernity, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/04/2009 - 10/04/2009
  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 04/07/2015

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu