In 1859, photographer Edward Sidney Dunshee advertised his ambrotypes in New Bedford, Massachusetts: “They are a durable picture for carrying to sea, and will not change even underwater.” Studio photographers like Dunshee helped shape how coastal inhabitants represented themselves through portraiture, and therefore how their memories would endure in early photographic forms.
This talk highlights the history of portrait photographs made between the time of photography’s invention in 1839 and the start of a new century in the 1900s, particularly in New Bedford. In this period, early photography took various forms such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, carte-de-visites, cabinet cards, and gelatin silver prints. Studio photographers moved the medium forward, and responded to the unique cultural landscape that unfolded around them.
New Bedford changed dramatically between 1839 and 1900. The whaling industry rose and fell, communities shifted and changed, waves of immigration brought new ideas, challenges, and tensions, and technology transformed. These changes are reflected in photography. For people of all backgrounds, the photo studio was a space where different relationships played out and where photographers and sitters represented personal identities together. This talk explores what the studio was like, and who belonged there—as photographer or sitter.
The exhibition “Look pleasant, please”: Early Portrait Photography in New Bedford will be on view at the New Bedford Whaling Museum January 16 – May 10, 2026.
