My Daguerreotype Boyfriend

From the submitter Erica:

This is Harald Andersen, my Norwegian great-grandfather. This photo was taken in 1903 after he arrived in New Zealand.

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, 1864-1892.

This grandson of Queen Victoria was second in line to the throne after his father, Edward the Prince of Wales. He was known as ”possibly bisexual, probably homosexual,” and some even speculated that he was Jack the Ripper (he wasn’t). He was famously implicated in a scandal at a male brothel and died of influenza at 28. 

Submitted by theweiblingepsyche

Rubyberry: In case you wanted more Charlie Chaplin

Never enough Chaplin! This looks like it’s from the year before the last photograph, 1915, when he would have been 22.

Charlie Chaplin, age 23 in 1916, when he was already the star of more than fifty short films, including The Tramp. 

(via Retronaut)

tuesday-johnson:

ca. 1850’s, [daguerreotype portrait of a bank note salesman with open book, bank notes]

via the Daguerrian Society, Matthew R. Isenburg Collection

(via fuckyeahhistorycrushes)

From the 1st Cossack regiment of Orenburg. c. 1892

Submitted by Caroline

And now, a word from the New York Historical Society about booze and boys:

Wouldn’t these dudes make nice dates to the BEER HERE: Brewing New York’s History exhibition at the New-York Historical Society?

Robert L. Bracklow, Munchen Hoffbrau Interior, ca. 1896-1905. New-York Historical Society

Phineas Gage, daguerreotype, c. 1850.

While preparing a rock for blasting, this 25-year-old railroad foreman miraculously survived when a three-foot tamping rod blew through the left side of his skull. One month after the accident he was able to walk, and he was soon able to function normally despite a paralysis in the left side of his face. 

Gage died of convulsions twelve years after his accident at the age of thirty-six. His skull was exhumed and is now housed in the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard. This daguerreotype of Gage wasn’t identified until 2009. 

This photograph of Phineas Gage has also been our most requested Daguerreotype Boyfriend since the site began. Good taste, everyone!

Hey Winston, you put us over the top! Thanks so much to our 60,000 followers! 

Winston Churchill in his officer’s uniform, age 21, 1895.

Oh and we have much more from the world of dashing officer uniforms:

Grand Dukes Sergei and Pavel of Russia, c. 1870

Henry Ossain Flipper, c. 1877

Vasil Levski, 1867.

Submitted by E. Crowell