Benutzer:MYR67/Artikelwerkstatt David William Seager

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David William Seager (D. W. Seager, auch: David Guillermo Seager) war einer der ersten Fotografen (Daguerreotypisten) Amerikas. Er war während des mexikanisch-amerikanischen Krieges auch in Mexiko tätig.

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Daguerreotype view of Broadway Astor House and St. Paul's Church exhibited at Doctor Chilton's apothecary taken by D.W. Seager

The New York Morning Herald for September 30, 1839, reported that on September 28 a Daguerreotype was made of a view of Broadway which showed Astor House and St. Paul's Church and that the print was exhibited at Doctor Chilton's apothecary. It was taken by D.W. Seager, an Englishman who was commissioned by his government to catalog natural resources and precious metals in Mexico. Seager was reported to have disappeared from New York but had obtained his copy of Daguerre's pamphlet at the same time as Samuel Morse. While the quality of materials obtained from hardware stores was poor (common silver-copper plate in rolls but too thin and impure), he was able to experiment and took a 15-min exposure of the view from a third-floor room of New York University. […] We know the following: D.W. Seager had knowledge, according to Samuel Morse, of Daguerreotype techniques and was reported to have been in Mexico during the Mexican-American War years.

„(Coincidentally, in 1844, George Gardiner and David W. Seager, who had played an important role in the introduction of the daguerreotype to the United States several years earlier, maintained a dental pratice at 7 Primera Calle de la Monterilla, near Halsey's rooms)2“

On September 20, 1839, Daguerre's instruction manual for his process (including how he created Diorama paintings) arrived in New York, and within days David William Seager6 was exhibiting daguerreotypes (now lost) at the establishment of Dr. James R. Chilton, a chemist ansd scientific supplier located on Broadway. A week after the manuals' arrival, Samuel F.B. Morse exhibited his own view of the city's Unitarian Church (also lost). Within two weeks the first American portraits, wirh the sitter's eyes shut to diminish movement caused by blinking during the long exposures, had been made. John W. Draber (1811–1882), a chemistry professor at what is now New York University, dusted his sister's face with white flour (to increase light reflectant and reduce the exposure time), made her daguerreotype, and sent it to Sir John Henschel in England.

„… Seager, said to be an Englishman resident in New York, was a first amateur who made and exhibited the first daguerreotype that side of the Atlantic not later than the last week of September 1839. [7] If it is presumed that Ste Croix had left Paris for London as an amateur without any relationship with Daguerre or any of his associates, then Seager would be an interesting comparison, because he had apparently returned to New York from Europe by mid–September 1839. The relevance of Seager to this article centres around the unsolved dating of an alleged transatlantic journey by him. That dating would also provide the key to establishment of the true facts about his earliest production of a daguerreotype in New York which has been put as early as September 16 (to this writer unlikely) rather than a more reasonable September 26, 1839. Seager is therefore discussed briefly at the end of this essay. … It is remarkable that D. W. Seager took a daguerreotype scene of New York before the end of September 1839, most likely on September 26. The city’s Morning Herald of September 30 reported:

We saw, the other day, in Chilton’s in Broadway, a very curious specimen of the new mode, recently invented by Daguerre in Paris of taking on copper the exact resemblance of scenes and living objects, through the medium of the sun’s ray’s reflected in a camera obscura. The scene embraces a part of St. Paul’s church, and the surrounding shrubbery and houses...It seems that for an annuity of $1200 a year, paid by the French Government, the inventor, in Paris, agreed to make public the process of taking such miniature pictures. Mr. Segur, of this city, on this description, set to work his powers, and, about three days ago, succeeded in making the experiment ...

The words “about three days ago” in this report are significant in providing the day the first daguerreotype was taken on the American side of the Atlantic. Almost immediately it was displayed at J. W. Chilton’s pharmacy at 263 Broadway. Obviously not lacking in confidence, Seager gave a demonstration lecture on the process on October 5. [26]“

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