Hagley's Oldest Photographs

We are often asked, "What’s the oldest photograph at Hagley?" Since the first practical photographic technique, the daguerreotype, was not introduced until 1839, we can hardly compete with some of the venerable items in other departments of the library.  The oldest document in the library is a parchment from 1438 with a record of payment by Bertran de Montault to his agent, Bernard Fouquier, for "military purposes." The oldest book is from around 1500.  It is a small printed version of Pietro de Crescenzi, “La maniere de enter et planter en jardins,” printed by G. Nyverd in Paris.

There are approximately 60 daguerreotypes in the Pictorial Collections Department of the Hagley Library.  Most of them are undated.  One of the most charming, however, has a very specific date.  It is a portrait of Edward C. R. Walker and Harriette Kingsbury. A note housed in the daguerreotype’s case states that it was "taken the day before they were married, August 9, 1854." The image was made by John A.Whipple of Boston, a very well-known early photographer. It is superseded, however, by another daguerreotype in our holdings to which we can give an earlier date due to the circumstances in which it was shot.

Image: Edward C.R. Walker and Harriette Kingsbury, 1854. View image in Hagley Digital Archives

Alfred Victor Philadelphe
du Pont (1798-1856) was the oldest son of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, founder of the powder yards. Alfred married Margaretta E. Lammot in 1824, and they had seven children, including four boys and three girls.  The oldest son, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont II, known simply as Irénée, was born in 1829. He was followed by Lammot (1831), Alfred Victor (1833), and Antoine Bidermann (1837). Irénée entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1845; Lammot enrolled there in 1846 and graduated in 1849.  At some point in the late 1840s, their brother, Alfred Victor, joined them at the school, and they had a group portrait taken.  This detailed picture, taken in the studio of brothers W. and F. Langenheim in Philadelphia, shows (left to right) Lammot, Alfred Victor (seated), and Irénée. Assuming that the picture was taken before Lammot graduated and returned to work in the Wilmington powder yards in 1849,  this becomes the earliest datable original photographic image in Hagley’s collections.

Image: Lammot du Pont, Alfred V. du Pont, and Eleuthère Irénée du Pont II, ca. 1849. View image in Hagley Digital Archives

As a footnote, it was only a few years ago that an ambrotype portrait of Alfred Victor and Margaretta Lammot du Pont, (parents to Lammot, Alfred, and Irénée pictured above) was found in another collection donated to Hagley. The ambrotype, by an unknown artist, was a photographic technique that came after the daguerreotype and was widely used in the 1850s.  Alfred died in 1856, so this picture, the only known photograph of him, dates to around 1854-55.

Image: Alfred V. du Pont and Margaretta Lammot du Pont, ca. 1855. View image in Hagley Digital Archives


For more information about the Hagley Library, visit www.hagley.org/library