Southworth, Albert Sands (1811-94), and Hawes, Josiah Johnson (1808-1901), New England studio photographers who took up photography separately after attending demonstration lectures by Daguerre's disciple François Gouraud in 1840. Southworth, a drugstore owner, opened his first daguerreotype gallery in Chicopee, Massachusetts, with Joseph Pennell in 1840; the early experience of Hawes, a self-taught painter and former apprentice carpenter, probably included a partnership with Fred Somerby in Boston. But by 1843 the two men were principals of a business that was to last until the beginning of the 1860s. (Southworth temporarily joined the Gold Rush in 1849-51, and made daguerreotypes of San Francisco.) Their Boston studio flourished: they specialized in simple, high-quality daguerreotype portraits, capturing gravity and dignity without the stiffness and tension evident in the work of the average practitioner, and they firmly refused to adopt the increasingly common practice of hand tinting. They habitually used larger plates than their competitors, and boasted that they never needed to charge less than $5 for a picture. They also patented various items (including stereoscopic equipment), manufactured cameras, and sold photographic supplies. After the partnership was dissolved, Southworth lectured on photography for a number of years, and Hawes continued to photograph at least until the end of the century.
— Robert Pols
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