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Artist
Unidentified Artist
Sitter
Julia Catherine Seymour Conkling, 4 May 1827 - 18 October 1893
Date
1848
Type
Photograph
Medium
Sixth-plate daguerreotype with applied color
Dimensions
Plate: 8.2cm x 6.8cm (3 1/4" x 2 11/16")
Topic
Interior
Costume\Headgear\Hat\Bonnet
Cased object
Julia Catherine Seymour Conkling: Female
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
S/NPG.95.102
Exhibition Label
Born into a politically prominent family in Utica, New York, Julia Catherine Seymour sat for this daguerreotype in July 1848, seven years before her marriage to rising politician Roscoe Conkling. She was embraced by Washington society when her husband won election to the U.S. Congress (1858), but their marriage was severely strained by Conkling’s indiscrete affair with D.C. hostess Kate Chase Sprague. Thereafter, Julia Conkling remained principally in Utica, where she later founded the Oneida Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (1893).
When Julia Conkling’s daguerreotype was paired with her husband’s, these individual portraits came to represent them as a couple.
Nacida en el seno de una familia destacada en el entorno político en Utica, Nueva York, Julia Catherine Seymour posó para este daguerrotipo en julio de 1848, siete años antes de casarse con el prometedor político Roscoe Conkling. La sociedad de Washington la recibió con los brazos abiertos cuando su esposo ganó las elecciones para el Congreso de Estados Unidos (1858), pero su matrimonio se vio gravemente afectado por la indiscreta aventura que Conkling tuvo con la anfitriona de D.C. Kate Chase Sprague. Tras los hechos, Julia Conkling permaneció principalmente en Utica, donde más tarde fundaría la division de Oneida de las Hijas de la Revolución Americana (1893).
Cuando se unió el daguerrotipo de Julia Conkling con el de su esposo, estos retratos individuales pasaron a representarlos como pareja.
