Stay in Touch
Get sneak previews of special offers & upcoming events delivered to your inbox.
Sign in
09-21-2021 07:44 AM
We're so lucky that some great figures of the past, lived long enough into the infancy of photography, so that we have that kind of record of them. Not just oil portraits.
We've all seen the images of Lincoln. I like this for the detail-- the expression in his eyes, etc. Look how his tie is slightly sideways and his shirt front rumpled. Endearing details caught by an early camera!
Calamity Jane, above. She looks determined!
Frederick Douglass-- this must be a famous photographic portrait of him, since I've seen it many times. Love the way it catches a force of personality and seriousness, that pierces right through the lens.
This one of John Quincy Adams, 6th president (betw. 1825--1829) is astonishing in its detail. It's been faintly colorized, but, wow. The worn marble of the fireplace, the leather bookbindings, most of all, his gaze and clasped hands. I wonder if he had arthritis. Love his jacket. This one is so oddly moving.
Amazing Emily Dickinson. Another widely known photo, or should I say, daguerrotype, but still with such impact.
And this one of a very young Count Leo Tolstoy! That stopped me in my tracks-- we usually see the author of "War and Peace", "Resurrection" and "Anna Karenina" as a long-bearded older man. Some early photographer caught him here when he was twenty. He has a certain intensity, would you say?
A slender slip of Harriet Tubman-- again, you can get such a feeling of strong personality. Additionally, the delicacy of those slender fingers are a detail you'd never get from a hundred historical accounts...
And here above is Timothy H. O'Sullivan's famous "darkroom wagon", a portable dark room, showing how intrepid photographers would trek through the American Old West, on their quest to record everything. This was taken in the Carson Sink, in Nevada.
If you do a search of "historical figures who lived long enough to be photographed", the site will appear and other interesting (and less well-known) portraits come up.
09-21-2021 07:59 AM
How interesting @Oznell ! Thank you so much for posting these!
09-21-2021 08:14 AM
Amazing portraits. Some I would of never guessed that's what they looked like. DH being a civil war buff has that pic of Lincoln in his den. Thanks @Oznell for another interesting post. ❤️
09-21-2021 08:25 AM
I love looking at old, historical photos. Thanks @Oznell for this great thread!
09-21-2021 09:25 AM
Mesmerizing, @Oznell . The few times I have been able to drag my DH with me to antique shops, it is always the pictures that caught his attention. If I couldn't find him, I knew where to look.........gazing at a picture, almost hypnotized. He would always say, I wonder what these people were like, what was their life like.
Again, thanks for the post.
09-21-2021 09:32 AM
Thanks for taking the time to post these photos.
09-21-2021 09:42 AM
@Oznell Thank you for an interesting thread.
The picture of Leo Tolstoy was one I had never seen.
You are right-the expressions (people didn't smile in photos back them) show the determination and the eyes almost say what each one was to accomplish.
Great pics.
09-21-2021 09:46 AM
The only thing I regret with Lincoln, is that he didn't live long enough for us to hear a recording of his voice. It was pretty close, though. There is a recording of John Wilkes Booth's brother Edwin reciting Othello, so had Lincoln lived longer, we would be able to listen to him as well.
09-21-2021 09:47 AM
@Oznell these pictures are sooo detailed for their time. Thank you for a very interesting and different thread. I loved history. And always loved looking at the pictures down through time. Amazing how far pictures have come.
09-21-2021 10:00 AM
@Oznell , thanks so much. Very interesting.
Get sneak previews of special offers & upcoming events delivered to your inbox.
*You're signing up to receive QVC promotional email.
Find recent orders, do a return or exchange, create a Wish List & more.
Privacy StatementGeneral Terms of Use
QVC is not responsible for the availability, content, security, policies, or practices of the above referenced third-party linked sites nor liable for statements, claims, opinions, or representations contained therein. QVC's Privacy Statement does not apply to these third-party web sites.
© 1995-2024 QVC, Inc. All rights reserved. | QVC, Q and the Q logo are registered service marks of ER Marks, Inc. 888-345-5788