The image above is a daguerreotype photograph. The daguerreotype process creates a highly detailed, direct-positive image on a sheet of copper coated with a thin layer of silver, without the use of a negative. The photograph was then hand-painted with oil paints, except for the hands and faces, to add color. These types of photographs were very popular in the U.S. during the 1850s and 1860s, before being replaced by tintype photographs.

At one point, I believed this photo might be of John and Sarah Lawson, my great-great-great-grandparents. However, a second cousin, Lola Mae (Townley) Weaver, owned a tintype photograph with the same pose, which may have been taken at the same time as the daguerreotype. Lola’s grandmother was Martha Jane (Lawson) McDonald, the third daughter of Albert and Nancy Lawson. By comparing this tintype with another photo of her grandparents and their first two children, we concluded that the image was taken around 1891–1892 in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). This ruled out the possibility of it being John and Sarah Lawson, as they had both passed away by that time.

We now believe the photograph is of my great-grandparents, Albert Gallatin Lawson and Nancy (Randolph) Lawson. Albert was born on May 15, 1838, in the Pleasant Grove area of Walker County, Alabama, and died on March 15, 1910, in Walker County. Nancy Randolph was born around 1838 in Walker County, Alabama, and passed away between 1891 and 1900 in the Indian Territory, near Talihina.

This is a copy of the tintype photograph that Lola had, which features the same pose as the daguerreotype, though she was unsure of who the subjects were. Lola also possessed a tintype of her grandmother, Martha Jane (Lawson) McDonald’s family, with a similar pose. Both tintypes and the daguerreotype appear to have been taken by the same photographer, as they share a similar background and composition.