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daguerreotypes ambrotypes composite daguerreotypes
Composite portrait of the Class of 1852, 1852. Composite portrait of the Class of 1852, 1852. Whole plate daguerreotype. Photographer, Henry E. Insley and Frederick DeBourg Richards.
detail of class portrait
Composite portrait of the Class of 1852, 1852. Whole plate daguerreotype. Photographer, Henry E. Insley and Frederick DeBourg Richards. [Detail]

 

 

 

Composite Daguerreotypes

While we know that Frederick DeBourg Richards took the individual daguerreotype portraits of these class members at Princeton, the larger composite portrait was made by a New York daguerreotypist named Henry E. Insley. Insley placed the name of his studio in the top right compartment of the composite daguerreotype.

Students were not alone in having their composite daguerreotype portraits made for the Portrait Gallery. In the 1850s the faculty had their individual portraits redaguerreotyped into composite daguerreotypes.