Bj. Mcfarland et Tp. Bennett, THE IMAGE OF POE,EDGAR,ALLAN - A DAGUERREOTYPE LINKED TO THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL-SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 147, 1997, pp. 1-32
From 1830 to 1850, Philadelphia's scientific, artistic, and literary c
ommunities experienced unprecedented synergy. Scientific societies fou
nded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, such as the
American Philosophical Society, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phi
ladelphia, and the Franklin Institute, reached a stage of broad expans
ion. Medical science and education ballooned, and magazines, newspaper
s, and publishers were proliferating. The circle of the educated elite
in Philadelphia was large enough to exhibit wide professional diversi
ty, yet small enough to allow frequent associations among its members,
whether scientists, artists, or both. We propose that a daguerreotype
that has appeared since 1937 in several articles, often without attri
bution, was taken by Paul Beck Goddard in the winter of 1842-43 in the
Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia's recently constructed bui
lding at the corner of Broad and Sansom Streets. Goddard had announced
as early as 1842 that he made daguerreotypes ''by the diffused light
of a room.'' The daguerreotype studied here is America's earliest exis
ting attempt to photograph a complex interior scene using natural ligh
ting with human subjects. Our evidence suggests that Edgar Allan Poe a
nd Joseph Leidy are in the photo. The final man's identification remai
ns speculative: Samuel G. Morton, John K. Mitchell or James C. Booth.
The earliest daguerreotype of its kind tells us much about the develop
ment of photography by 1842-43. The picture also illustrates Philadelp
hia's synergistic linking of the scientific and the artistic creative
impulse. The history of the Academy during a determinative period is r
eflected in the daguerreotype images: place, people, specimens, and sc
ience.