One Final Thought on Daguerreotypes

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Conclusion

Like I said in March 2012, since there was no identifying information included with this daguerreotype, we will probably never be 100 percent sure of the identifications. It has been accepted by many descendants as a picture of John Tanner, and I respect the effort that went into that conclusion, but as much as we would all like this to be a picture of John Tanner, it isn't.

The picture was kept in the Myron Tanner family because he is the man at the left. This picture would have been taken after Myron arrived in San Bernardino in the fall of 1852 following his successful California gold mining adventures.[1] He would have had cash in hand to pay for the fairly expensive picture and case.

Myron is Elizabeth Beswick Tanner's oldest son and is sitting at the right hand of his widowed mother who, like her step-daughter Louisa Maria Tanner Lyman, seems to be wearing mourning, either to mark the death of her husband John Tanner in 1850 or the death of her daughter Sariah Tanner in March 1853. Myron would have been 26 or 27 at the time this picture was taken.

The boy standing behind Elizabeth is her son Joseph Tanner, 19 or 20 at the time. [See comment below; Linda Davis made a compelling argument on FamilySearch in 2019 that the boy in the back is David Dan Tanner rather than Joseph.] Both Myron and Joseph [and David Dan] have distinctive Beswick features, most notably the mouth, but also an easily recognizable spacing of their facial features, and both men hold their heads at a particular angle in the pictures.

My final identification of the subjects of the daguerreotype:

Sitting, left to right: Myron Tanner, Elizabeth Beswick Tanner, Louisa Maria Tanner Lyman. Standing: Joseph Tanner [David Dan Tanner].

I would be happy to hear reactions to this series. Do leave a comment. If you disagree with the identification, please read through all the posts and let me know what part of the data you interpret differently and why. If you have questions about my sources, just ask, and I'd be happy to provide further citations.[2]

Analyzing this daguerreotype has been a great adventure. The existence of the picture, kindly provided to the Tanner family by way of the Church History Library by Myron Tanner descendant Claudia Rayl, together with the recent movie Treasure in Heaven, has led to a resurgence of interest in the Tanner family history. What a wonderful time for the John Tanner family.[3]

Notes

[1] Myron's biography states that he left Utah Territory for California in the spring of 1850, several months before any daguerreotypist was known to have been operating in Salt Lake City, so 1852 is the first date a daguerreotype could have been taken, and the family was in California at the time.

[2] Although I sometimes link to articles in Wikipedia, that is because the links tend to be stable and quickly explain the subject. I have a degree in history and specialize in community and family history, and I have been trained by excellent historians, so the information contained in these posts is from a large variety of vital and census records, primary and secondary sources, and one well-written, well-sourced Wikipedia article on hand-colored photography. My bibliography for this project is currently seven pages long, and it would be overkill to post it here, but as said, I would be happy to answer questions about sources and citations.

[3] To anyone who is reading this far down the page, I would suggest that any efforts to gather and write more of the history of the family should include the stories of the women, since the family history efforts up until now have almost exclusively focused on the Tanner men.

[May 29, 2014. A claim was made elsewhere that the subjects in this daguerreotype had to sit still for twenty minutes for the exposure. I'm not sure where that information came from. The following creditable source notes that by 1842, exposure time was down to as little as ten seconds. (The Daguerreotype Process.)]

Links to Posts in the Tanner Family Daguerreotype Series

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center
Part 7: Boy in Back — First Possibility
Part 7: Boy in Back — Additional Possibilities
Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?
Part 8: Man at Left — Options
Part 8: Response from CHL about Fire Damage
Part 9: Conclusion
One Final Thought on Daguerreotypes

Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Response from CHL

The other day I noted that I would post the response from the Church History Library in Salt Lake City about the daguerreotype case. Here is the entire response, with two pictures sent by the reference librarian.

Our response is: After examination by our archive administration we conclude that there is no evidence of fire damage (see attachment). Best wishes with your project. Number of documents attached to this message:2 Attached documents may be listed at the beginning or end of this email Sincerely, [...] Reference Librarian Church History Library

The status of your question is now closed.

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Man at Left — Options

The Man in the Daguerreotype

The daguerreotype was either taken in 1844 in Nauvoo, 1850-51 in Utah Territory, or after 1852 in California. To give a pretty wide range, he seems to be over 20 and under 60, so he would have been born between 1784 and 1832. These are the men in the Tanner family who may fit the bill.

John Tanner (1778-1850)

There is no known picture to compare.

Elisha Bently Tanner (1801-1858)

Son of John and Tabitha Bently Tanner. There is no known picture to compare. There is no indication in the family history that he ever visited the West.

William Stewart Tanner (1902-1875)

Son of John and Lydia Stewart Tanner. Note that the picture says "Stuart." That's a late-nineteenth century affectation by the Tanner family in the west. The correct spelling is Stewart, as used by his mother's family and in his 1875 Massachusetts probate.

Sidney Tanner (1809-1895)

Son of John and Lydia Stewart Tanner. Accompanied the family to the Nauvoo area, Utah Territory, and California.

John Joshua Tanner (1811-1896)

Son of John and Lydia Stewart Tanner. Accompanied the family to the Nauvoo area and Utah Territory. Did not go to California.

Nathan Tanner (1815-1896)

Son of John and Lydia Stewart Tanner. Accompanied the family to the Nauvoo area and Utah Territory. Did not go to California.

Martin Henry Tanner (1822-1907)

Son of John and Lydia Stewart Tanner. There is no known picture to compare.

Albert Miles Tanner (1825-1879)

Son of John and Lydia Stewart Tanner. Accompanied the family to the Nauvoo area, met them in Utah Territory after serving in the Mormon Battalion, and went with them to California.

Myron Tanner (1826-1903)

Son of John and Elizabeth Beswick Tanner. Accompanied the family to the Nauvoo area, met them in Utah Territory after serving in the Mormon Battalion, and met them in California after joining the Gold Rush.

Seth Benjamin Tanner (1828-1918)

Son of John and Elizabeth Beswick Tanner. Accompanied the family to the Nauvoo area and Utah Territory, and met them in California after joining the Gold Rush.

Freeman Everton Tanner (1830-1918)

Son of John and Elizabeth Beswick Tanner. Accompanied the family to the Nauvoo area, Utah Territory, and California.

Joseph Smith Tanner (1833-1910)

Son of John and Elizabeth Beswick Tanner. Accompanied the family to the Nauvoo area, Utah Territory, and California.

David Dan Tanner (1838-1918)

Son of John and Elizabeth Beswick Tanner. Accompanied the family to the Nauvoo area, Utah Territory, and California.

The Boy in the Daguerreotype

Just for the sake of comparison, here is the boy in the back. 

* * *

And now I have given everyone all the information necessary to identify the people in the picture. Anyone want to make a guess before I reveal my final identification tomorrow? No credit for the identity of either of the women — we already know who they are — but the first people to match my conclusions on the identity of either the man or the boy will receive a certificate for meritorious genealogical efforts. The first person to come up with both of them will receive a certificate for meritorious genealogical efforts and bragging rights. :)

Here are links to all the posts if you want to check any of the clues or data.

Links to Posts in the Tanner Family Daguerreotype Series

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center
Part 7: Boy in Back — First Possibility
Part 7: Boy in Back — Additional Possibilities
Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?
Part 8: Man at Left — Options
Part 9: Conclusion

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Man at Left — John Tanner?

Now, to the fun part of this series: the man at the left. Is he or is he not John Tanner?

Since the identities of both of the women in the daguerreotype are known, and their approximate movements are known, we know that the daguerreotype could have been taken in Illinois, in Utah, or in California. If it was taken by Lucien Foster in Nauvoo, Illinois, John Tanner could have been in the picture, and he would have been 66 years old.

The man in the picture does not look 66 years old. He does not look like he has suffered a very serious head injury at the hands of the mob in Missouri, as is recorded in the history of the Church, and had suffered through other serious health problems.

As the experts at the Church History Library noted, the man in the picture may be in his 30s or 40s.

Also, if the daguerreotype was taken in Nauvoo, the case should show fire damage. (See notes about the fire in a previous post.) I have sent a note to the Church History Library asking if there is fire damage, and was hoping to hear back by now. I will include the response when it arrives.

If the picture was taken in Salt Lake City or San Bernardino, John Tanner cannot have been in the picture. By the time any daguerreotypist is known to have been in Salt Lake City (Robert Campbell or J. Wesley Jones in the summer of 1850 or Marsena Cannon in October of the same year), John Tanner had died.

Marsena Cannon's advertisement for daguerreotypes. Deseret News, December 14, 1850, 6.

* * *

The other day I had a curious experience. I sat down in the foyer at church and a few minutes later a man sat down opposite me to feed his newborn baby a bottle. I said something polite about the baby and went back to reviewing this daguerreotype series on a handheld device.

A few minutes later, I thought that I should show him the daguerreotype. As we discussed it, he asked if the picture was from a matriarchal society. I said that it wasn't. He explained that in the culture where he'd been raised, the only time you would see a woman seated in the center of a picture would be if she was the grandmother. This woman doesn't look old enough to be a grandmother.

The more he thought about it, the stranger he found the family grouping. His final conclusion was that the woman in the middle of the picture was the mother and that her position in the center indicated that the father was not in the picture. (He said "The father is not in the picture" at least three times.) He said that the man to her right would be her oldest son or a brother-in-law.

That conversation reinforced my opinion that the man to the left is not John Tanner, but puzzled me since her oldest son was standing behind her, and I didn't know of any brothers-in-law who could have been in the picture. I thought perhaps the man could be Sidney Tanner, her oldest step-son not living in the Northeast, and resolved to compare the picture again with the one known photo of Sidney Tanner.

Tomorrow we will review pictures of the men in the Tanner family.

Links to Posts in the Tanner Family Daguerreotype Series

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center
Part 7: Boy in Back: First Possibility
Part 7: Boy in Back: Additional Possibilities
Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?
Part 8: Man at Left — Options
Part 8: Response from CHL about Fire Damage
Part 9: Conclusion

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Boy in Back — Additional Possibilities

In this continuation of a long-running series about a daguerreotype now in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, I continue to look at the identity of the boy standing in the back of the picture. For previous installments of the series, see the links at the bottom of this post.

When I resumed the series this week, I assumed that the boy in the back was correctly identified as Myron Tanner. However, the more I looked into the history of the daguerreotype, the more I realized there were other options.

Before reviewing Elizabeth's other sons, I will review the history of another John Tanner son, who was similar in age to Myron Tanner. He's not in the picture, but it is worth mentioning that he was considered.

Possibility 2: Albert Miles Tanner (1825-1879)

John Tanner's second wife, Lydia Stewart Tanner, died in New York in 1825 after the birth of her twelfth child, Albert Miles Tanner. Several months later, John Tanner married Elizabeth Beswick. She helped take care of his six minor children, and not long afterwards, she gave birth to a son, Myron.

Myron and his slightly older half-brother, Albert Miles, were close in age, and the family history suggests that the two of them did not get along and that the conflicts led to some long-standing family difficulties.

Albert accompanied the family to Kirtland, Missouri, and Iowa. Like Myron, Albert served in the Mormon Battalion (Company E), but unlike Myron, he made it to California. He rejoined the family in Utah and then went with them to California where he helped build the San Bernardino settlement and served as constable for the community.

Albert married Lovina Bickmore. The two had nine children as they moved up and down the Pacific Coast. Albert was said to have served as the first sheriff of Sacramento, California. Albert died in 1879:

... of blood poisoning in his leg after it was amputated... The cause was a stagecoach accident. According to the newspaper account, he had been racing against the postal driver's stagecoach when his coach overturned, pinning his leg underneath. Albert ran the Tanner Express line in Santa Paula, CA at the time. [Source.]

At least one of Albert's children followed the profession so common in the Tanner family: his oldest son was a lawyer in early Southern California.

There is only one known picture of Albert Miles Tanner.

Albert Miles Tanner. From John Tanner and His Family, 283. 

If the picture was taken in 1844, Albert was about the right age to be the boy in the picture, but he does not look like the boy in the picture. The boy in the picture bears a strong resemblance to Elizabeth Beswick Tanner, and since Albert was not Elizabeth's son, we can eliminate him as a real possibility.

Possibility 3: Elizabeth Beswick Tanner's Other Sons

The daguerreotype could have been taken in Great Salt Lake City or San Bernardino. This allows the possibility that one of Elizabeth Beswick Tanner's younger sons is the boy in the picture. The options are:

• Seth Benjamin Tanner (1828-1918)
• Freeman Everton Tanner (1830-1918)
• Joseph Smith Tanner (1833-1910)
• David Dan Tanner (1838-1918)

The options narrow down very quickly when you look at pictures of the four sons. Two of them had the narrower Tanner face, rather than the more heavy-set Beswick face and distinctive Beswick mouth.

First, here is Seth Tanner. He has the narrower Tanner face. He would have been 16 years old at the first possible date for the daguerreotype.

Next is Freeman Tanner. He also has the narrower Tanner face, and from having looked at many pictures of the Tanner family, I think this is what John Tanner must have looked like. Freeman would have been 14 years old at the first possible daguerreotype date.

The third option is Joseph Smith Tanner. He is the first one of the four to have that distinctive Beswick face that shows up on the boy standing in the back of the daguerreotype. If you are familiar with the T.C. Christensen film about the Tanner family, Treasure in Heaven, Joseph Smith is the only child mentioned by name in the production. Joseph would have been 11 years old at the earliest date for the daguerreotype.

And last is David Dan Tanner. Unfortunately, I cannot find a picture of Dan without a full beard, but in any case he probably would have been too young to be the boy in the daguerreotype, since he would have been six years old at the first possible date, and just twelve at the next possible date. If the daguerreotype was much later than 1853, he would have been a possibility.

To keep the post fairly brief, I will not review any of their biographies, although I may come back and add them later, but logistically they could all have been in any of the right locations for the daguerreotype. After they all arrived in Utah Territory, they seemed to remain more or less in the same area until Myron and Seth left for the gold fields in California sometime after John Tanner died. Myron and Seth didn't seem to spend long at the mines and by 1852 or 1853, most of the family was together in the San Bernardino settlement.

Links to Posts in the Tanner Family Daguerreotype Series

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center
Part 7: Boy in Back: First Possibility
Part 7: Boy in Back: Additional Possibilities
Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?
Part 8: Man at Left — Options
Part 9: Summary

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Boy in Back — First Possibility

In this continuation of a long-running series about a daguerreotype now in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, we look at the identity of the boy standing in the back of the picture. For previous installments of the series, see the links at the bottom of this post.

This picture was handed down through the Myron Tanner family, so the most obvious identity for the boy standing in the back would be Myron Tanner himself.

If the picture was taken in 1844, Myron would have been 18, which looks plausible. If it was taken around 1850-1851, he would have been too old to be the boy in the picture.

Close-up of the boy standing in the back.

Myron's presence would tend to date the daguerreotype more than any other person in it. Here is a brief biography, emphasizing the movements that place him at the correct locations to have been in this picture.

Myron Tanner was born in New York in 1826. He accompanied his parents, John and Elizabeth Beswick Tanner, to Kirtland, Missouri, and Iowa, where they lived across the river from Nauvoo, Illinois.

Myron Tanner, freighter, sometime before his marriage in 1856.

Myron enlisted in the Mormon Battalion (Company D) in 1846. He was taken ill and left the Battalion, overwintering in Pueblo, Colorado, and was with the group that entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 29, 1847, five days after Brigham Young arrived.

Myron immediately turned around and traveled to Winter Quarters, now North Omaha, Nebraska, where many of the Saints were living in makeshift homes. He spent a year working for George A. Smith, and then headed west in 1849 with the George A. Smith/Dan Jones Company. The company arrived in Salt Lake in October 1849 and Myron continued to work for George A. Smith. Before long, he found out that his father was very ill in South Cottonwood, so he went to help with his father's care in the final days before he died on April 13, 1850.

Myron Tanner, wedding photo, 1856.

Myron spent several years in California working in the gold fields with his brother Seth Tanner and then joined the family in San Bernardino in the fall of 1852.

Myron traveled several times between California and Utah Territory and finally returned to Utah  in 1856 and married Mary Jane Mount, a minor figure in the literary history of the state of Utah. He spent most of the rest of his life living in Payson and Provo, serving as a bishop in Provo for many years, and also marrying Englishwoman Ann Crosby.

Myron Tanner.

As previously mentioned, this daguerreotype remained in the Myron Tanner family, which would suggest that he is one of the subjects of the picture, but the fact of possession alone is not enough to make the identification, so we will continue to explore other possibilities in subsequent posts.

Links to Posts in the Tanner Family Daguerreotype Series

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center
Part 7: Boy in Back: First Possibility
Part 7: Boy in Back — Additional Possibilities
Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?
Part 8: Man at Left — Options
Part 9: Summary

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Woman in Center

And now, after a long break, we're back to the mystery of the Tanner Family Daguerreotype.

If you haven't read the previous chapters, links are at the bottom of this post.

The woman in the middle with the purple shawl (the picture was tinted by hand) is generally thought to be Elizabeth Beswick Tanner.

John Tanner was twice widowed when he asked for Elizabeth Beswick's hand in marriage in 1825. Elizabeth was 21 when she married 47-year-old John. It must have been difficult for her to adjust to life in the Tanner family: John had two sons older than Elizabeth, and one daughter slightly younger, but with the youngest just an infant and five other children in-between, the family needed a mother, and Elizabeth stepped right in to do the job.

Here is the picture from the daguerreotype:

Here is a picture from Elizabeth's later years. The identification looks correct.

Elizabeth's children were born in 1826 (Myron), 1828 (Seth), 1830 (Freeman), 1833 (Joseph), 1835 (Philomelia), 1838 (David Dan), 1840 (Sariah), and 1843 (Francis).

If this picture was taken in 1844, was she in mourning for Francis who died in June of that year? Is she wearing a mourning bonnet? (See links for pictures of 1840s mourning bonnets: here and here.) It looks like she's wearing a black mourning bonnet.

The only people she would wear mourning for were close family members. Since this picture seems to have been taken in the mid-1840s through the early 1850s, she could have worn mourning for the following deaths:

• Child Francis Tanner, died June 1844 in Iowa.
• Husband John Tanner, died April 1850 in Utah.
• Mother Anna Lamb Beswick, died September 1852 in New York. (It probably took Elizabeth a while to hear about her mother's death.)
• Child Sariah Tanner, died March 1853 in California.

That would place this picture within a year following one of those deaths. Was it taken in Nauvoo by Lucian Foster after Francis died? In Utah by Marsena Cannon, Sr., after John Tanner died? Or in California after Anna Beswick or Sariah Tanner died?

[Note, May 2012: Maria Tanner Lyman is also wearing a bonnet of a similar style but with a ruffle that has been hand-colored purple. She lost a daughter in 1848, her father in 1850, and a member of her husband's family in 1846. Oh! Is it possible that they were wearing mourning for Joseph and Hyrum Smith? The two of them died on June 27, 1844. The fact that the two of them are wearing mourning is inconclusive.]

San Bernardino

In 1851, the Tanners left for San Bernardino, California. They were there until late 1857. A handful of daguerreotypists operated in the area during the existence of the Mormon settlement, including:

• Carvalho (Solomon) — in Los Angeles for a month (August-September 1854) operating in partnership with A. M. Johnson
• Da Lee (Amon Gilbert) — rented Hallman's daguerreotype studio in Los Angeles in 1856.
• Hallman (A.) — had a portrait gallery in Los Angeles from about 1856-1857. He may have remained in the general area, since he was in San Diego in 1858.
• Hereford (T. S.) — in Los Angeles around 1853.
• Johnson (A. M.) — operated a daguerreotype gallery in Los Angeles.
• Lewis (J.) — operated a daguerreotype studio in Los Angeles around 1853.
• Osburn (William B.) and Searles (Moses) —  had a daguerreotype gallery in Los Angeles in 1851.
• Penelon (Henri C.) and Davoust (Adrien L.) — operated a photography studio in Los Angeles as early as 1853.
• Smith (William, later known as Amor De Cosmos) — a partner of Marsena Cannon in Salt Lake before he left for California where he was an itinerant daguerreotypist until he moved to Canada in 1857.

Reading through the possible daguerreotypists, and looking at Myron Tanner's age, it seems most likely that the daguerreotype was taken before the San Bernardino period, but there were a number of daguerreotypists who could have visited San Bernardino and taken a picture, or the Tanners could have traveled to Los Angeles and had their picture taken there.

To be continued...

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center
Part 7: Boy in Back — First Possibility
Part 7: Boy in Back — Additional Possibilities
Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?
Part 8: Man at Left — Options
Part 9: Summary

The picture of the daguerreotype is, as always, from Ancestry.com, courtesy of Claudia Rayl. The picture of Elizabeth Beswick Tanner is from John Tanner and His Family (George Tanner, 1974, 374). The information on the photographers is from the amazing book Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865 (Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn, 2000).

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Woman at Right

The most easily identifiable person is the woman to the right. She has very distinctive facial features. Anyone familiar with the Tanner family would glance at the picture and immediately identify her as Louisa Maria Tanner Lyman. (Except for those who would call her Maria Louisa.)

Note: Although many sources call her Maria Louisa, the George S. Tanner book John Tanner and His Family states that her name was Louisa Maria. The confusion undoubtedly comes because she was known as Maria. Unfortunately, even her gravestone is wrong. (Her death certificate and most census forms and an early letter use Louisa as her first name.)

Louisa Maria Tanner Lyman's gravestone, Tooele City Cemetery, Tooele, Utah. From Find A Grave.

Maria was the ninth child of John Tanner and his wife Lydia Stewart Tanner. John Tanner had 21 children with three non-polygamous wives. He had sixteen boys and five girls. Four of the boys and three of the girls died in infancy or childhood. The two surviving daughters were both daughters of Lydia Stewart Tanner: Matilda, who lived most of her life in Kirtland, Ohio, and Maria, who went West with the Saints and spent most of her life in California and Utah. Maria went to visit her sister Matilda in Kirtland in 1887.

Maria was the first wife of Apostle Amasa Lyman. Due to complications caused by her husband's responsibilities and personality and circumstances, she lived a very difficult life.

Here is an enlargement of the daguerreotype:

The picture of Maria from the daguerreotype.

If the daguerreotype was taken in 1844, Maria would have been 26, which looks correct. She would not have been pregnant at the time, since she had a daughter born in 1843, and a son born in 1846. But her next two children were born in 1849 and 1852. It is possible that the picture was taken as late as 1851, before the family left South Cottonwood for San Bernardino, since a daguerreotypist arrived in Salt Lake City in 1850. There is also a possibility that it was taken in San Bernardino. (More about that later.)

Maria Tanner Lyman, date unknown.

Maria Tanner Lyman, date unknown.

Standing, left to right: Joseph, Freeman, Seth, Myron. Sitting, left to right: David Dan, Maria Lyman, Nathan. Picture taken during a Tanner family reunion on August 15, 1898. The three Tanner children who traveled West and are not in the picture are: Albert (died 1879 in California), Sidney (died 1895), John Joshua (died 1896). There is supposed to be a better copy of this picture in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City.

Maria Lyman, enlarged from the previous picture.

To be continued...

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center
Part 7: Boy in Back — First Possibility
Part 7: Boy in Back — Additional Possibilities
Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?
Part 8: Man at Left — Options
Part 9: Conclusion

The pictures of Louisa Maria are from (1) Ancestry.com, courtesy of Claudia Rayl, original source unknown; (2) http://georgeandsadiefrey.blogspot.com/2009/07/amasa-mason-lyman-photos.html, original source unknown; (3) FindaGrave, courtesy of SMSmith, original source unknown; (4) Ancestry, courtesy of Craig Watkins, scanned from the book John Tanner and His Family (George S. Tanner, 1974), (5) and (6) Ancestry, courtesy of AnnTandJessWagstaff, original source unknown.

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Technology Meets the Tanners

Despite all efforts to identify the people in this picture, the bottom line is is that we can't know the details for sure. It is unfortunately common to have old family photos without identifying information. It's tragic, in a way, when you think about how much this picture could have meant to the people in it.

The Tanner family moved from Bolton, New York, to Kirtland, Ohio, in the winter of 1834-1835. They moved to Missouri in 1838. In 1839, the Tanner family was living at New Liberty, Illinois.

During the Nauvoo period, the Tanner family lived in Montrose, Iowa, across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo.

The email from the Church History Library in the introductory post mentions Lucian Foster, the Nauvoo daguerreotypist. Here is one of his well-known pictures from Nauvoo:

Nauvoo-era daguerreotype of Brigham Young.

John Tanner left Nauvoo on a mission in April 1844. The daguerreotypist Lucian Foster reportedly arrived in Nauvoo on April 27, 1844, with his daguerreotype equipment. He first advertised in the Nauvoo Neighbor on August 21, 1844, two months after the murder of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum.

Not much is known about Lucian (also Lucien) Foster. He evidently left Illinois sometime after his time there in the mid-1840s and moved to Brooklyn, New York.

Advertisement for daguerreotypes in the August 28, 1844 Nauvoo Neighbor. From BOAP.org.

Since John Tanner was on a mission to promote Joseph Smith's candidacy for president, he would probably have returned to Illinois upon hearing news of Joseph Smith's death. The date of his return is not noted in any of the family histories.

As far as we know, this would be the first opportunity the Tanners had to sit for a portrait. It was just four or five years after the first picture was ever taken of any person anywhere. Would the Tanners have taken the opportunity to have a daguerreotype made by Lucian Foster? Which of the Tanners would have been available and would have sat for the portrait? Why the four in this picture? Why not others? Does it look like the daguerreotype of Brigham Young or other known daguerreotypes taken in Nauvoo?

When the Saints left Nauvoo, the Tanners moved with the Saints to Winter Quarters, Nebraska. In January 1847, their entire home was burnt. Elizabeth Beswick Tanner recalled:

We were camped out at Winter Quarters where we had our cabin where we had most of our things burnt. The boys on the range with the cattle had some bedding which was saved—but the chest containing my clothing with many other things were burned. I was left without a change of clothing except print for one dress.

Someone saved John Tanner's original copy of the Book of Mormon from the fire, although it suffered significant damage.

John Tanner's original Book of Mormon. When George Tanner wrote the book John Tanner and His Family, this original copy of the Book of Mormon was in the possession of Patience Thatcher of Logan, Utah. From John Tanner and His Family (Tanner, 1974), page 44.

If the daguerreotype was taken before 1847, was it rescued from the fire? Does it have any evidence of fire damage? Was it rescued without damage? Or was the picture taken later?

Sixty-nine year old John Tanner and his family left Winter Quarters on July 3, 1848. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in the middle of October 1848 and settled in South Cottonwood (now Murray), in the Salt Lake Valley.

John Tanner died a year and a half later. I have not seen any suggestion of a daguerreotypist operating in Salt Lake City before John Tanner's death on April 13, 1850. The first daguerreotypist in Salt Lake City seems to have been Marsena Cannon, Sr. He and his family arrived in Salt Lake City on October 14, 1850, six months after John Tanner's death.

The year after John Tanner's death, his family left South Cottonwood to go to San Bernardino with Charles C. Rich and Amasa Lyman. They were in San Bernardino until 1858, when they returned to Utah Territory at the time of the Mormon conflict with the Federal Government.

Subsequent posts will discuss the identity of the people in the picture, the possibility that it was taken in San Bernardino, and the possible dates for the picture.

To be continued...

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center

Part 7: Boy in Back — First Possibility

Part 7: Boy in Back — Additional Possibilities

Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?

Part 8: Man at Left — Options

Part 9: Summary

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: What is a Daguerreotype?

The history of photography is too complicated to describe here, but the first photographic images of people were created in 1838 or 1839, just a few years before the Tanner daguerreotype was taken. It was a technology whose time had come: it quickly became widespread within a few years.

Here is the picture of the first known photographic image that shows living people. The picture was taken with a ten-minute exposure, so the only people who show up are a man getting his shoes polished, and the shoe-shine boy, who didn't move for much of that time. (Look in the bottom left corner.)

From Wikipedia.

This picture was created by Frenchman Louis Daguerre, the man who developed the process known as daguerreotype. There were many other processes being developed about the same time; William Henry Fox Talbot made major contributions to the technology.

The daguerreotype process is complicated:

The daguerreotype is a direct-positive process, creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative. The process required great care. The silver-plated copper plate had first to be cleaned and polished until the surface looked like a mirror. Next, the plate was sensitized in a closed box over iodine until it took on a yellow-rose appearance. The plate, held in a lightproof holder, was then transferred to the camera. After exposure to light, the plate was developed over hot mercury until an image appeared. To fix the image, the plate was immersed in a solution of sodium thiosulfate or salt and then toned with gold chloride.

Exposure times for the earliest daguerreotypes ranged from three to fifteen minutes, making the process nearly impractical for portraiture. Modifications to the sensitization process coupled with the improvement of photographic lenses soon reduced the exposure time to less than a minute.

Although daguerreotypes are unique images, they could be copied by redaguerreotyping the original. Copies were also produced by lithography or engraving. ("The Daguerreotype," Library of Congress.)

A daguerreotype was taken by a camera with the lens in a sliding compartment. The daguerreotype artist focused the picture by sliding the rear compartment of the box forward or backward. The daguerreotype was a mirror image unless the image was flipped by a mirror or prism. The artist took the picture by putting a plate into the camera, and then removing the lens cap to expose the plate.

Daguerreotypes came in several standard sizes:

Whole plate            6.5 x 8.5 inches
Half plate                4.25 x 5.5 inches
Quarter plate           3.25 x 4.25 inches
Sixth plate               2.75 x 3.25 inches
Ninth plate              2 x 2.5 inches
Sixteenth plate        1.375 x 1.625 inches

A daguerreotype was typically placed in a case and a brass protector, then covered with glass, a brass mat, and a paper seal. (Christopher Warren.)

Early British daguerreotype. By whatsthatpicture from www.flickr.com/photos/whatsthatpicture/5974940963/.

Here is a good resource about daguerreotypes:

America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1862 (Library of Congress)

To be continued...

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center
Part 7: Boy in Back — First Possibility
Part 7: Boy in Back — Additional Possibilities
Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?
Part 8: Man at Left — Options
Part 9: Summary