Bound volume---12 August 1854-22 June 1855

One of the first Americans to make daguerreotypes in the United States, Morse opened a studio in New York in 1840. There, he received many students who paid him to teach them the new daguerreotype process. More pupils came to him than to any other daguerreotypist at the time because of his prestige as president of the National Academy and an acquaintance of Daguerre himself. Some, including Mathew Brady, eventually became highly accomplished. In this letter to Morse, Brady recognizes his teacher's significance to early photography by calling him "the first successful introducer of this rare art in America."