Annie Adams Fields
Daguerreotype photograph by Southworth & Hawes, 1853
Visible image: 7.5 cm x 6 cm; in case: 9.5 cm x 8 cm
This daguerreotype, taken by notable Boston photographers Albert S. Southworth and Josiah J. Hawes, depicts Annie Adams Fields in profile. Daguerreotypes, the earliest form of photography, are reversed images captured on light-sensitized silver-plated sheets of copper. Though these early portraits were physically uncomfortable, time-consuming, and expensive to make, they quickly became extraordinarily popular. Photographed a year before her marriage to publisher James T. Fields in 1854, Fields was an author and social reformer who made her home the center of literary Boston. The Fields's circle of friends included American authors published by her husband in the Atlantic Monthly, as well as European writers who visited Boston. In addition to her role as a literary hostess, Fields wrote biographical sketches and edited the letters of authors Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Celia Thaxter.
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