Historic Northampton


Collections

Daguerreotype & Photograph Collections

Historic Northampton's photograph and negative collection totals approximately 10,000 items, including over 700 daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. A significant aspect of this group of early photographs is that 62 of the daguerreotype cases were made locally by A.P. Critchlow & Co. and its successor, Littlefield, Parsons & Co.- nationally important manufacturers of early forms of plastic. Approximately 300 glass plate negatives from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are part of the photograph collection. The bulk of the photograph collection is paper-based. The museum's photographs are significant not only for their local subjects, but for their representation of local photographers.

Man with Dog Daguerreotype, 1850-55Man with Dog Daguerreotype, 1850-55