Albert S. Southworth was born in 1811 in West Farleigh Vermont. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover and became a pharmacist in Cabotville, Massachusetts. It was there where he learned of the daguerreotype, which was the first publicly announced photographic process in 1839, through a former classmate, Joseph Pennell, who invited him to New York to learn the process from Samuel F.B. Morse. By May of 1840 he became partners with Pennell and said, ”I can now make perfect pictures in one hour’s time…that would take a painter weeks to draw”(britannica.com).
Southworth and Pennell worked to perfect the daguerreotype process for portraiture. In 1841 they moved to Boston in Scollay Square with intentions of becoming society portraitists. Pennell left the partnership and was replaced by Josiah Johnson Hawes. “They worked together with the exception of two years from 1849 to 51, when Southworth participated in the California Gold Rush.” (photographymuseum.org)
Hawes was born on a farm in East Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1808. At seventeen he worked for a carpenter for six years, which he gave up to be an artist. “I purchased books, colors and brushes and commenced the study of art, “I practiced miniature painting on ivory, likewise portraits in oil, landscapes, etc. with no teacher but my books” (photographymuseum.org). In 1841, after seeing a daguerreotype for the first time, he said, ”it changed my course entirely… I gave up painting and commenced daguerreotyping” (photographymuseum.org). He studied the process with Daguerre’s student and agent, Francis Fauvel Gouraud in Boston.
In 1843 he joined in partnership with Albert Southworth in the newly established Boston studio. In 1849, he married Southworth’s sister, Nancy Niles Southworth.
During their 20 years of collaboration, Southworth and Hawes catered to Boston society and the famous. Their approach was to create a distinction between the appropriate styles for personal versus public portraiture. Southworth and Hawes avoided contrived poses and painted backdrops. Instead, they gave each customer personal attention, making spontaneous portraits that revealed the personality of the sitter. “Among their sitters were Louisa May Alcott, Lyman Beecher, Benjamin Butler, William Ellery Channing, Rufus Choate, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Charlotte Cushman, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Dorothea Dix, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Everett, William Lloyd Garrison, Grace Greenwood, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sam Houston, Thomas Starr King, Louis Kossuth, Jenny Lind, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Horace Mann, Donald McKay, Lola Montez, George Peabody, William H. Prescott, Lemuel Shaw, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Sumner, Daniel Webster, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Robert C. Winthrop” (Wikipedia.org).



Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1857. (Wikipedia.org)

Southworth and Hawes most impressive accolade historically is arguably capturing the ether anesthesia delivered at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1847. Dr. William Thomas Green Morton administered ether to a patient and removed a tumor from a patient’s neck. Morton's public demonstration of general anesthesia was therefore historic. To commemorate this momentous event, Southworth and Hawes were asked to daguerreotype the operation. The photograph would have taken place, but Hawes was squeamish about the blood, and they photographed a re-enactment instead. On April 3, 1847, Southworth and Hawes were called upon to record an actual operation, again with the patient under ether.


Southworth and Hawes preforming reenactment of ether procedure, 1847.

The two men also made daguerreotypes of landscapes, cityscapes, and scenes that were not then accepted as proper subjects of photography, such as hospital operating rooms. They worked together until 1861 when Southworth ended the partnership. They are renowned for their revolutionary creativity and innovation in photography.


The Longfellow Family.
Longfellow with his second wife Fanny Appleton and two children.
Date 1849(1849)


Title: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Date: ca. 1857
Medium: albumen print, coated


Title: Rollin Heber Neale
Date: ca. 1850

Works Cited
"America's First Masters of Photography: Southworth & Hawes." American Museum of Photography -- View Great Photographs Online -- History of Photography Exhibits. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. .
"Biographies: Southworth & Hawes." George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, NY. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. .
"Southworth & Hawes." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. .
"Southworth & Hawes." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. .