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Young, J. S.

Dagu[e]rreotypes!! J. S. Young…

Steubenville, [Ohio], 23 December 1853. Broadside, 9” x 5.125” plus margins. CONDITION: Very good, minor stains, light foxing and toning, old folds.

An unrecorded broadside advertising the services of a little-documented daguerreotypist in Steubenville, Ohio.

Young announces that he has “Re-fitted and re-furnished the rooms” at the corner of Fifth and Market Streets “in a style inferior to none, and has spared no pains or expense to make his rooms pleasant…where all who wish may be supplied with DAGUERREOTYPES of the finest tone, true to life, at very reasonable rates…” Young’s appeal to potential customers plays on their desire to preserve the likenesses of those who will not or may not be with them someday:

Readers, if you are still blessed with parents, who are yet in good health, and no Artist’s pencil has truely [sic] traced the lineaments of his or her face or form, you may well act the part of wisdom to advise or persuade them to visit without delay…How many have lost a father, Mother, a Sister, a Brother, or an innocent little prattling child, and have not now, even the shadow of a resemblance to look upon. After the separation, some “little toy,” or trifling article of apparel is often kept for years, and cherished as a token of remembrance. How much more valuable would one of Young’s perfect daguerreotype miniatures be of the “loved one lost.”

There is a note on J. S. Young in Pioneer American Photographers, 1839-1860 stating that he is recorded in an advertisement that ran in the Cadiz Democratic Sentinel (Cadiz, Ohio) from February 24th, 1854 to April 25th, 1855 at the address mentioned on this broadside. The note further states that an advertisement for one J. S. Young, daguerreotypist, appears in the Washington Review and Examiner (Washington, Pennsylvania) and observes that “It is possible that J. S. Young is the same person in both locations based on dates of activity and proximity.” Steubenville, Ohio and Washington, Pennsylvania are just thirty-two miles apart via the shortest modern route.Craig’s Daguerreian Registry lists one John S. Young, active in Washington, Pa. in 1859.

REFERENCES: “J. S. Young” at Pioneer American Photographers, 1839-1860 online; “Young, John S.” at Craig’s Daguerreian Registry online.

Item #9369

Price: $1,800.00

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