The Lost Museum Archive

This photograph of Jenny Lind, taken by Mathew Brady in 1852, both enhanced her celebrity and encouraged the nascent practice of portrait photography. Brady, now most famous for his Civil War battle photographs, in fact rose to prominence in the 1840s and 1850s as a portrait photographer. His New York City studio was a destination for the rich and famous, who traveled from around the country to sit for photographic portraits. The public visited Brady's gallery (located with his studio on lower Broadway, not far from the American Museum) to view the portraits, created using the "new" technology of daguerrotyping.