Portraits of the Past
The birth of portrait photography occurred when French painter Louis Daguerre introduced his revolutionary process in 1839. Requiring only minutes of exposure, daguerreotypes nonetheless produced clear, detailed images. The process was rapidly adopted and improved upon by others, and the practice of capturing a person's likeness with a camera became a profession and an art form. Soon Americans flocked to commercial studios to pose for their portraits, popular tokens of affection and exchange. By the turn of the 20th century, cameras had become available to the mass-market and amateur photographers proliferated.
The Whatcom Museum holds more than 200,000 historical images in its photo collection in the form of photographic prints, negatives, glass plate negatives, and slides, reflecting the work of both commercial and amateur photographers. Many of the photos are portraits, capturing the faces of bygone Whatcom County residents, rural and urban, at work and at leisure, notable and unknown.
Presented here are some of the better-known residents, but the collection includes thousands of images including family portraits, class photos, newspaper shots, wedding pictures, and more. Interested parties may search the catalog during public hours and can obtain prints or digital copies of most of the images.
Come find your people!
