Alexander B Weeks: A Daguerreotypist's Journal: Brooklyn, Recife, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Toledo, Detroit

Alexander B Weeks’ journal provides a first hand account of the life of a Daguerreotype photographer in the 1850’s. Weeks was employed by Jeremiah Gurney in his famous gallery on Broadway in New York City. Entries made during a voyage to Brazil and Uruguay as a partner to the itinerant Daguerreotypist, Charles Deforest Fredericks (or Fredricks) offer insights into the business methods of these adventurers. Read about the creation of the first Daguerreotype images taken in Recife by Fredricks & Weeks. Images of views and portraits by Fredricks & Weeks now held in American, British, Canadian and Uruguayan collections are included. The descriptions of Recife and Montevideo from the point of view of a New York Quaker also make for interesting reading. Weeks' entries for his years in Toledo, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, describe some of the technical difficulties presented by impure chemicals and the low temperatures of Midwest winters. The journals also offer grim evidence for the health effects of the hazardous materials employed by Daguerreotype operators.