Daguerreotypes of Caroline Parker

Lewis Henry Morgan first met Caroline G. Parker in 1845 during a visit to the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation. She was the older sister of Ely S. Parker, Morgan’s collaborator on The League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois, and subsequent Civil War Union general and Seneca sachem. Morgan described her as “the prettiest Indian maiden in the council,” and found her “modesty and diffidence . . .really quite engaging.”

Around the year 1849, Caroline G. Parker had her portrait taken. Lewis Henry Morgan most likely commissioned the daguerreotypes illustrated here with the intention of documenting and preserving artifacts from Iroquois life and culture. In one, Parker is seated with her left arm raised to rest her head, while her right arm lays comfortably on her lap. Her jewelry is in plain view as she sports a beaded necklace, a pair of dangling earrings, and a variety of rings. The garments that Parker wears, sewn and beaded by Parker herself, were treasured items in the collection that Morgan assembled for the New York State Museum. Parker’s combination of a skirt—decorated with celestial motifs of trees and flowers—overdress, leggings, moccasins, handbag, and a draped blanket presented an ideal image of a well-dressed Seneca woman in the mid-nineteenth century.  

In 2010, the daguerreotype showing Parker seated was purchased by a private collector at an online auction run by Sotheby’s for $62,500.  Another daguerreotype, showing Parker standing in the same outfit, was made at the same session.  It was sold at Cottone Auctions in 1998 for $41,000, an event reported in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.