SOUTHWORTH, ALBERT SANDS; AND HAWES, JOSIAH JOHNSON

born March 12, 1811, West Fairlee, Vt., U.S. died March 3, 1894, Charlestown, Mass. born Feb. 20, 1808, East Sudbury, now Wayland, Mass. died Aug. 7, 1901, Crawford's Notch, N.H. American photographers who collaborated to produce some of the finest daguerreotypes of the first half of the 19th century. Southworth was moderately wealthy and had attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., whereas Hawes was an apprentice carpenter and amateur painter. But both men decided to become daguerreotypists when, in 1840, they independently viewed the first daguerreotype brought to the United States. They learned the process from the U.S. agent of Jacques Daguerre, the inventor, and in 1841 opened a portrait studio together in Boston. Unlike most portrait daguerreotypists of the mid-19th centurywho were often more concerned with the quantity of their sales than with the quality of their portraitsSouthworth and Hawes avoided contrived poses and painted backdrops. Instead, they gave each customer personal attention, making spontaneous portraits that revealed the personality of the sitter. Lemuel Shaw, then chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, was portrayed, for example, in a pose he happened to assume in a shaft of light that brought out the rugged features expressive of his character. The high quality of the work of Southworth and Hawes attracted many of the most prominent Americans of the day to their studio, including Senators Daniel Webster and Henry Clay and the writer Harriet Beecher Stowe. The two men also made daguerreotypes of landscapes, cityscapes, and scenes such as hospital operating rooms that were not then accepted as proper subjects of photography. In 1849 Southworth went to California in a futile attempt to find gold. When he returned to Boston, his failing health prevented him from working actively. In 1861 he ended his partnership with Hawes, who continued to photograph until his death.