Early Maine Photography

Sarah Richards was the daughter of Francis and Anne (Gardiner) Richards, members of two of Gardiner’s most prominent families. Tragedy struck these families on September 4, 1855, when fifteen year old Sarah Richards drowned while swimming in the Kennebec River at Swan Island opposite Richmond.

Enos Crockett, a daguerreotype artist who worked in East Thomaston in 1849 and in Rockland from 1855-1856, made a post-mortem daguerreotype portrait of Johnnie Crockett, his son.

Families often had post-mortem images made if they had no other image of a family member who had died.

A post-mortem daguerreotype portrait of Mrs. William H. Herbert ca. 1843.

Mrs. Herbert was the daughter of George Barker, a ship captain in Bangor.

Dr. Thomas A. Foster (1827-1897) was a physician in Waterville and Portland. His wife, Jane, died in 1853, when their two boys, pictured here, Charles and Barzillai were still young.