Ezra Greenleaf Weld
Encyclopedia
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
studio in Cazenovia, New York
Cazenovia, New York
Cazenovia is a town in Madison County, New York, United States. The population was 6,481 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Theophilus Cazenove, an agent of the Holland Land Company.The Town of Cazenovia has a village also named Cazenovia...
. He and his family were involved with the abolitionist
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
movement.
Family
Greenleaf was the son of Ludovicus Weld and Elizabeth (Clark) Weld. His brother was Theodore Dwight WeldTheodore Dwight Weld
Theodore Dwight Weld , was one of the leading architects of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years, from 1830 through 1844.Weld played a role as writer, editor, speaker, and organizer...
, one of the most important abolitionists of his era. These Welds are all members of the very notable Weld Family
Weld family
The Weld family is an extended family of Boston Brahmins most remembered for the philanthropy of its members. The Welds have many connections to Harvard University, the Golden Age of Sail, the Far East , the history of Massachusetts, and American history in general.William Weld, former Governor of...
of New England and share ancestry with Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960...
, William Weld
William Weld
William Floyd Weld is a former governor of the US state of Massachusetts. He served as that state's 68th governor from 1991 to 1997. From 1981 to 1988, he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Justice Department...
, and others.
Personal life
Weld was born in Hampton, ConnecticutHampton, Connecticut
Hampton is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,758 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water....
and lived there until 1825 when his family moved to Pompey, New York
Pompey, New York
Pompey is a town in the southeast part of Onondaga County, New York, United States. The population was 6,159 at the 2000 census. The town was named after the Roman general and political leader Pompey by a late 18th-century clerk interested in the Classics in the new federal republic.- History :The...
. He married Mary Ann Parker on August 16, 1827. Mary died on April 30, 1831, soon after giving birth to her second child. After moving to Cazenovia, Ezra remarried to Deborah Richmond Wood on April 12, 1840 and they later had four children.
Photography
Weld opened his first studio in his home in 1845. In 1850, Cazenovia hosted the abolitionist meeting known as the Fugitive Slave Law Convention. This gave Weld the opportunity to photograph the legendary orator Frederick DouglassFrederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
with the Edmonson sisters
Edmonson sisters
Mary Edmonson and Emily Edmonson , "two respectable young women of light complexion", were African-American women who became celebrities in the United States abolitionist movement after gaining their freedom from slavery...
, Gerritt and Abby Kelley Foster. This daguerreotype was given to the imprisoned abolitionist William Chaplin who had helped many of the attendees escape to freedom.
Of the six daguerreotype
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
s of Douglass that have survived, only one besides Greenleaf's image has had its daguerreotypist identified. Greenleaf's image is unique because it is a group shot at an outdoor meeting rather than a studio portrait. Daguerreotypes were seldom attempted under these circumstances because the long exposure time required made it difficult to get a satisfactory result. Weld's is the only daguerreotype of Douglass whose date is known with certainty. This daguerreotype is also unique in the paradoxical sense that it is the only one known to have been copied. Two original half-plates exist: One is held by the Madison County Historical Society in Oneida, New York
Oneida, New York
Oneida is a city in Madison County located west of Oneida Castle and east of Canastota, New York, United States. The population was 10,987 at the 2000 census. The city, like both Oneida County and the nearby silver and china maker, takes its name from the Oneida tribe...
, the other is in a private collection and currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington, D.C. The copy (shown above) is in the J. Paul Getty Museum
J. Paul Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is an art museum. It has two locations, one at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and one at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California...
, Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
In the mid 18th century, most American towns had at least one studio. In an 1850 advertisement in his local newspaper, Greenleaf offered:
"Miniatures executed in the finest style, and put in Rings, Pins, Lockets and cases, of great variety size and price."
Greenleaf seems to have been very successful with his daguerreotype business. By 1851 he had leased new quarters on the top floor of a building, where he placed a skylight to receive northern light for his studio sessions. ring the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
years, he made numerous pictures in and around Cazenovia.
At some point, he included his son, Albert Weld, in his photography business and renamed the company E. G. Weld and Son. Ezra died on October 14, 1874 at Cazenovia and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Cazenovia, New York.