CONCLUSIONS
Perhaps Draper saved the visible images in the plate box as examples of problems he experienced
using each of his sequence of lenses. If this box indeed contains residual plates from Draper's
experiments, it appears that one extant image survives from at least five of six distinct lens
systems. In his September 1840 Philosophical Magazine article, Draper specifically
detailed defects of the daguerreotypes each of his prototype lenses produced. His
descriptions correspond to visible characteristics of daguerreotypes in the plate box. Draper
wrote this article in the spring of 1840, possibly as he examined experimental samples made with
each lens. Why else would Draper have described, in detail, the limiting defects of
daguerreotypes taken six months earlier with an obsolete procedure, unless he happened to be
viewing the plates before him? Why does each of the defects he mentioned in the article
correspond to visual evidence in the plate box daguerreotypes unless they were the images that
jogged his memory about pitfalls in his earliest experimentation?
Any autumn 1839 daguerreotypes Draper might have kept were probably defective examples (his
best plates were reused). Since he considered them as defective examples of experiments, he
likely
retained them only to help him compose his article. After completion of his Philosophical
Magazine article Draper moved quickly to other projects. He may have had a preconceived
intention of disposing of the images or possibly did not really care what became of them since
each was flawed and had served his intended use. Regardless, by the 1850s, when investigators
demanded further specifics from his memory, Draper may no longer have possessed (or known the
location of) examples of his earliest work. Perhaps Draper gave the images away as some sort of
souvenir after using several to complete his article.[107*] Efforts to link
the provenance of the plate box to someone around Draper in 1840 are uncompleted thus far.[108*]
If indeed Draper and Morse took these daguerreotypes at the University of the City of New York
between September 1839 and the spring of 1840, then the contents of the plate box represent some
of the world's first experimental photographic portraits of the human face and could revolutionize
much that is known concerning the first American daguerreotypes and the world's first portraits.
They would lift the veil of mystery that has always surrounded the earliest experiments of Draper
and Morse. Their existence may preserve a fragile visual record of a moment in time and space
where art and science merged in the invention of photography. Further exploration of these
artifacts should include:
1) A forensic study of the materials/process in each plate.
2) A detailed lens analysis correlating historical description to the visual evidence in each image.
Experts in optics and lens science should examine each plate to attempt determination of which
lens took each image.
3) Additional study and reinterpretation of written sources for deeper understanding of the images
and to correct published accounts of the history of photography.
It is hoped that this work may generate further discussion, interpretation, or discovery concerning
the plate box images. The contents of this simple wooden box extend human vision back to the
horizon of chemically recorded time. These faces reflect across 150 years. No earlier exact view
of the human past may be possible.
Follow this link for A FINISHING TOUCH:
RESOLVING AN ENIGMA