Smithsonian Acquires Rare Antique Portraits From First Black Photographers
The Smithsonian American Art Museum has bought a collection of early photographs, including very rare daguerreotypes from three early Black photographers dating to the mid 19th century.
Larry West was looking for a hobby that would combine visual arts and American history. And he found it in 1975 at an antique store in Mamaroneck, N.Y. At that time, boxes of daguerreotypes â the first commercially successful photographic process, invented. "And I was fascinated."
