MORE ON SAXTON'S 1839 PHOTO FROM THE U.S. MINT

Further information concerning Joseph Saxton’s 16 October 1839 photograph taken from the U.S. Mint may be found in a publication written by Arthur H. Frazier: Joseph Saxton and His Contributions to the Medal Ruling and Photographic Arts. City of Washington: Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology, Number 32, 1975. [Kolbe Library 448].

Frazier cites an 1892 article as the source of the numismatically rather fascinating assertion that a silver plate, from which coin planchets were cut, was utilized for the 1839 photograph and further notes that “(a) combination of Saxton’s medal ruling and daguerreotype skills helped to produce a remarkable illustration of the second United States Mint, which was published in 1842 in Eckfeldt and Du Bois’ Manual of Gold and Silver Coins.”

Frazier further states that Saxton’s 1839 daguerreotype is “one of the first ever made in this country and the oldest extant American picture by any photographic process… Historically, it is one of the most famous pictures in all of American photography.”

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
JOSEPH SAXTON'S 1839 PHOTO FROM THE U.S. MINT (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n35a16.html)

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