THOMAS MARTIN EASTERLY
|
Born 1809
Died 1882
Daguerreotypist
American |
 Click
picture to enlarge. This somber image is as important for what it leaves
out as for what it shows. The conspicuous absence of the man's wife and
the children's mother and the inclusion of the elderly mammy suggest the
latter's role as caregiver to the family and hence her inclusion in the
family portrait. Despite the responsibility of her position, this woman
was probably a slave. Her emotional separation from the family is
emphasized in the group's body language: the girls lean toward their
corpulent father, while the small, old woman sits just beside the small
child's chair, her crossed hands in her lap revealing multiple rings
that hint at familial connections of her own.
Courtesy of The Getty Museum. |
A sometime calligrapher and writing teacher, Vermont-born Thomas Easterly
learned the daguerreotype process in New York between 1841 and 1844,
possibly from Charles and Richard Meade. In 1844 Easterly sailed from New
York City to New Orleans, where he made photographs before returning to
Vermont the following year. He did not remain for long: by October, he had
entered into a daguerreotype studio partnership in Iowa. He and his partner
operated as traveling photographers working throughout Iowa and Missouri for
several years. Some scholars have credited Easterly with making the first
photographs of Plains Indians.
After the dissolution of the partnership, Easterly moved to Saint Louis and
took over a studio in 1848. He had a successful career for ten years, but
his loyalty to the daguerreotype process after the introduction of the
ambrotype, tintype, and paper photograph processes caused his business to
falter. By 1860 Easterly had begun to sell farm implements in addition to
continuing his daguerreotype practice.
Likeness and Landscape : Thomas M. Easterly and the Art of the Daguerreotype
Dolores A. Kilgo, Published 1994
|
