The forgotten photographer who put a US president within the White House – and pioneered photographic branding

Most folks imagine that the oldest surviving picture of a sitting US president is the portrait of President James Ok Polk (1795-1849), captured by photographer Matthew Brady (1822-1896) on the White House on February 14 1849, close to the top of Polk’s time period.

But what if I instructed you that one other picture of the identical president was taken three years earlier by a largely forgotten Welsh immigrant, John Plumbe Jr?

Plumbe (1809-1857), a Welsh-born US citizen, began skilled life as a civil engineer earlier than transferring into pictures. In 1840, he got here throughout the work of an itinerant daguerreotypist in Washington, DC, inspiring him to study the rising craft.

By the next yr, Plumbe had opened his first pictures studio in Boston. Eventually, this grew into an enormous enterprise of greater than a dozen portrait and daguerreian galleries throughout main US cities, incomes Plumbe the nickname “the American Daguerre”.

In 1846, Plumbe captured the image that has come to define his photographic legacy: a group photo of President James K Polk and his cabinet shortly after the declaration of war on Mexico. The frame, now recognized as the oldest surviving photograph of a sitting US president, is also the earliest photographic record of the White House interior.

Over the years, Plumbe has gained wider recognition for his history-defining picture. But one thing many photographers nonetheless do not know is that he pioneered a industrial apply utilized by skilled studios to at the present time.

Plumbe is believed to have been the primary photographer to model the daguerreotypes produced via his numerous studios along with his personal identify, no matter which photographer truly made them.

Several notable early photographers and daguerreotypists educated, labored or honed their abilities in Plumbe’s galleries. These included William Shew (1820-1903), Samuel Masury (1818-1874) and Plumbe’s brother, Richard Plumbe, who managed the Dubuque, Iowa, gallery.

But by marking all pictures with the identify “Plumbe”, the pioneering photographer ensured that the brand he created became more recognizable than the individual photographer.

Historians will remember the president, but Plumbe’s 1846 image of James K Polk also captures the rise of photography as a commercial industry. Plumbe wasn’t merely documenting a moment in history; he was building a photography brand years before anyone else.

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