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The “Barrett” Daguerreotype

This daguerreotype (fig. 66), a copy of the “Ultima Thule” daguerreotype, is preserved in a pressed leather case lined with red velvet. Neither the case nor the daguerreotype itself bears a visible trademark, and virtually nothing is known of the portrait's early history. The present owners of the daguerreotype record only that the plate was formerly in the collection of Roger Barrett of Chicago, and was purchased at auction in December 1952 for $550 by a noted collector of Poe memorabilia, Col. Richard Gimbel.(4) In April 1959 the daguerreotype was exhibited at the Yale University Library, erroneously catalogued in the Yale University Library Gazette as the work of Mathew Brady.(5) Following Gimbel's death in 1970, his massive collection of Poe manuscripts and memorabilia, including the daguerreotype, was bequeathed to its present owner, the Free Library of Philadelphia.