28 November 1840
Dear Sir,
I expect in a day or two from Mr Davidson <1> a full account of his Process, and I shall let you know the time in which the Picture is formed in the Camera.
I have intimated my intention of giving a public lecture in the College here <2> on the Principles & Methods of Photogenic Drawing and the Daguerrotype: If you would send me one of your Portraits <3> to exhibit, I should return it to you immediately.
I am Dear Sir Ever Most Truly yrs
D Brewster
St. Andrews
Novr 28th 1840
Notes:
1. Thomas Davidson (1798–1878), scientific instrument maker and Daguerreotypist. [See Doc. No: 04163]. He was the author of The Art of Daguerreotyping, with the Improvements of the Process and Apparatus (Edinburgh: 1841).
2. The United College of St Salvator and St Leonard, University of St Andrews, of which Brewster was principal 1837–1859.
3. In September 1840, photographic portraiture, in paper processes, had been made possible by the discovery of the calotype process.As copying would have been difficult in the fainting light of the approaching winter, WHFT evidently could only afford to lend Brewster these rare specimens. However five early photographic portraits by WHFT can be found in Brewster’s album. For these images see: ‘A Man Standing in a Doorway’, taken 1840 or 1841, reproduced in Graham Smith, Disciples of Light: Photographs in the Brewster Album (Malibu: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1990), p. 140; ‘Lady Elisabeth Feilding’, taken August 1841, reproduced in Disciples of Light, p. 32; ‘Lady Elisabeth Feilding as Paolina Borghese’, Schaaf 3693, taken 20 April 1842, reproduced in Disciples of Light, p. 136; ‘Workman at Lacock’, taken 9 April 1842, reproduced in Disciples of Light, p. 137; and ‘Nicolaas Henneman’, taken 1842 or 1843, reproduced in Disciples of Light, p. 37.