This well-dressed family sat for Charles L. Marston of Bangor between 1856 and 1859. Marston skillfully posed the seven sitters - a father, mother, three sons, and two daughters – to accentuate their individual personalities, expressions, and postures, creating a balanced but dynamic composition. This daguerreotype is a half-plate, the second largest size available, testifying to the importance of this image.
This group portrait of O.R. Patch and family of Bangor is a typical example of family portraiture in the 1860s. This three generation portrait places a grandmother at the center flanked by a mother and father. Two boys stand behind them and a third sits in front of his father.
John and Harriet Spofford, and their three children, Carolyn, Emmeline, and Charles posed for this family portrait.
Following their marriage in 1839, the Spoffords moved from Massachusetts to Dedham in northwest Hancock County, where they farmed and raised their family.
This daguerreotype of a father, mother, and their son was taken by Samuel L. Carleton of Portland. The father holds the hand of his son who's posing in Napoleonic fashion with his other hand in his coat.
These two boys are the sons of James Fowler of Unity. The multi-patterned outfit worn by the brother on the right is rare in this era of photography portraiture.
This is a daguerreotype portrait by an unidentified maker of Martha Cleaveland Chandler with her two children, Horace and Peter. They are, from left to right, Peter, Horace, and Martha Chandler. Born in Brunswick on July 16, 1812, she was married to Peleg Whitman Chandler, born in New Gloucester, Maine, and a prominent Boston attorney.
Though the family lived in Boston, they maintained strong connections to Maine. Martha was a daughter of Martha Bush and Parker Cleaveland, Bowdoin College's first professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, known as the "Father of American Mineralogy." Parker Cleaveland built and resided in what is now known as the Cleaveland House, the residence of the Bowdoin College president. Martha's husband, Peleg, Bowdoin class of 1834 and later a Bowdoin trustee, bought the house in 1860. It remained in the family until 1951.
Fred Burrill of Auburn, Maine, was photographed with his first wife and their children to produce these four ambrotypes that are housed in a decorative Union case. An accompanying note reads, "Fred Burrill of Auburn, first wife and children. 2nd wife was Lucy Clark Patterson." The front of the case is decorated with a bas-relief of three children playing with toys in a pastoral landscape.
