Augustus Washington

Augustus Washington (1820/1821 - June 7, 1875) was an African-American photographer and daguerreotypist, who later in his career emigrated to Liberia. He is one of the few African-American daguerreotypists whose career has been documented.^[1]

Biography

He was born in Trenton, New Jersey, as the son of a former slave and a woman of South Asian descent. He studied at Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York and the Kimball Union Academy before entering Dartmouth College in 1843. He learned making daguerreotypes during his first year to finance his college education, but had to leave Dartmouth College in 1844 due to increasing debts. He moved to Hartford, Connecticut, teaching black students at a local school and opening a daguerrean studio in 1846.^[2]

Washington made the decision to emigrate to Liberia in 1852. It took him a year to save up enough money to travel and he moved in 1853 with his wife and his two small children. He wanted to move to Liberia because he believed African Americans should leave the United States and start their own colony in Africa where they would not be discriminated against and would enjoy equal rights. The American Colonization Society started the process of moving African Americans to Liberia and help fund the colony. Washington opened a daguerrean studio in the capital Monrovia and also traveled to the neighboring countries Sierra Leone, Gambia and Senegal. He later gave up his photographic work and became a sugarcane grower, and politician, serving in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He died in Monrovia in 1875.^[3]

Works

• 

  Portrait of Chancy Brown, sergeant-at-arms for the Liberian senate.

• 

  Portrait of Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first and seventh president of Liberia.

• 

  Portrait of Urias McGill, a merchant in Monrovia.

• 

  John Brown in 1846 or 1847.

References

1. "A Durable Memento". Smithsonian. May 1, 1999. Retrieved 2009-12-12. Augustus Washington was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1820 or 1821. His father had been a slave in Virginia. His mother was a native of South Asia, but he says no more about her. She probably died young. His stepmother, described by Washington as "an excellent Christian woman of Indian, white and negro extraction," had also been a slave.
2. The Connecticut Historical Society. "Augustus Washington: Hartford's Black Daguerreotypist". Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
3. "A Durable Memento". National Portrait Gallery. Archived from the original on 3 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-18. The son of a former slave, Washington was born in Trenton, New Jersey. As a youth, he embraced the abolitionist movement and struggled to obtain an education, studying at both the Oneida Institute and Kimball Union Academy before entering Dartmouth College in 1843.

External links

• Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery
• Letter by Augustus Washington to The Tribune