This is a studio camera from the second half of the nineteenth century. The person being photographed had to be still for several seconds while the exposure was being made.
Who was the most photographed American of the nineteenth century?
There are 126 known photos of President Abraham Lincoln and 160 of Frederick Douglass, the American social reformer, abolitionist, orator and writer. Frederick Douglass embraced the new technology of photography as an effective way to dispel the caricature-like manner in which African Americans were usually portrayed. He, like Lincoln, understood the power of this new medium.
The studio camera below is just one of MANY interesting historical items at the Boonsborough Museum of History.
