| Sumario: | The story of how the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired its Southworth & Hawes daguerreotypes demonstrates the surprising role that the subjective opinions of owners and curators have had in the canonization of photography. In the case of the Southworth & Hawes collection, provenance and their role as historical precedent led to the acceptance of these daguerreotypes as canonical examples of the earliest photographic process. Through the history of this particular collection's cultural elevation, this essay addresses provenance itself in terms of the influence that owners have over the social, cultural, and economic evaluation of museum-quality objects.
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