Poster of Henry David Thoreau, depicted by the classic 1856 Maxham daguerreotype, courtesy of The Thoreau Society Collections at the Thoreau Institute. A quotation from Walden appears at bottom: "Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures." Words to live by! Suitable for office, classroom, or anyplace where inspiration is necessary.
Measures 16 x 20 inches. Will mail in a shipping tube.

Includes a quotation below from Walden: "Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures."

The Maxham Daguerrotype

Calvin R. Greene was a Thoreau “disciple” who lived in Rochester, Michigan, and who first began corresponding with Thoreau in January 1856.  When Greene at once asked for a photographic image of the author, Thoreau initially replied: “You may rely on it that you have the best of me in my books, and that I am not worth seeing personally – the stuttering, blundering, clodhopper that I am.” (Correspondence, 407)  Yet Greene repeated his request and sent money for the sitting.  Thoreau must have kept this commitment to his fan in the back of his mind for the next several months.

In mid-June 1856, during a trip to Worcester, Massachusetts, Henry Thoreau visited the Daguerrean Palace of Benjamin D. Maxham and had three daguerreotypes taken for fifty cents each.  He gave two of the prints to his Worcester friends and hosts, H.G.O. Blake and Theo Brown.  The third he sent to Calvin Greene in Michigan.  “While in Worcester this week I obtained the accompanying daguerreotype – which my friends think is pretty good – though better looking than I,” Thoreau wrote. (Ibid., 426)

Source:
Thoreau, Henry David.  Correspondence.  Edited by Walter Harding and Carl Bode.  New York University Press, 1958.


“Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures,” is quoted from the “Baker Farm” chapter of Walden.

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