The Library Company recently acquired five daguerreotypes and two ambrotypes (both early non-paper photographic processes), relating to the Swift family of Philadelphia. One case is marked with the photographer’s imprint; H.B. Swift, 312 Market Street,
and most of the other portrait images have paper labels identifying the sitters as members of the Swift family. As is frequently the case with family history, information handed down from generation to generation has proven to be inaccurate and ongoing research is still sorting out how these images relate to each other and to the career of Henry B. Swift.
Henry worked as a daguerreotypist at a time when Philadelphia was a bevy of photographic activity. A survey of city directories indicates that approximately 300 daguerreotypists operated studios in Philadelphia during the 1850s. Henry first appears in city directories in 1850 when he is listed as a daguerreotypist in partnership with an S. Wainwright at 312 Market Street. Henry’s father Robert owned a toy store at the same address and the daguerreotype studio was probably located on a floor above the shop. From 1851 through 1853 Henry worked alone and then joined Thomas T. Mahan for a two-year partnership. Mahan continued to operate a daguerreotype studio above Robert Swift’s shop, but in 1855 Henry’s career as a professional photographer ended. In January 1855 Henry married Emma A. Butler of Philadelphia and after 1856 he listed his occupation as a clerk. Perhaps Henry needed to find a more stable, secure job now he had taken on the responsibility of a wife.
In the one marked case in the collection, Henry has taken his younger sister Elizabeth’s daguerreotype (see image above left) at about the time of her 1852 marriage to Reverend Nixon. In her portrait, she rests her elbow on a column, the same column that appears in this unidentified daguerreotype (see image above right). This might be a portrait of one of Henry’s other sisters, Caroline, Hannah, or Mary, or possibly his wife, Emma.
The collection also includes a portrait, attributed to Henry, of Elizabeth’s husband, Reverend Nixon, incorrectly identified in a label as a Presbyterian clergyman. The couple’s marriage announcement in the newspaper identified Nixon as a Methodist Episcopal minister who had recently returned from serving as a minister in Louisiana.
In this charmingly informal daguerreotype, Henry’s mother, Mary Barnes Swift is portrayed with a young boy who may be her nephew, Robert. The boy leans affectionately against the older woman who holds his hand in her lap. Neither has dressed up for the photographer and both appear perfectly at ease in front of the camera.
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